Hello World! Welcome Friends! Nothing adds more value to a home than a spectacular view. If the opportunities present themselves, bringing the surrounding landscape into your personal sanctuary give people a feeling of being connected to the world while maintaining the comfort and privacy of their own home. There’s no better place to capture these views than on a rooftop deck, where the point of view is at it’s highest and the vistas are at their most expansive.
Rooftop decks also lend themselves to being great places to plant gardens and green roofs. In many urban settings, your roof might be the only place you get sunlight ample enough to grow anything at all, so taking advantage of being above the shade line becomes of vital concern for green thumbs and weekend gardeners alike.
Here are 5 rooftop garden tips and ideas that will transform your rooftop decking space into a natural oasis.
1. Center your garden
Nothing ruins the open feel of a rooftop deck by crowding the edges with thick landscape elements. The whole point of occupying your roof is to expand your view out past the confines of your exterior walls. A smart way to prevent this from happening is to centralize your garden to the interior of your roof deck. This also gives you an opportunity to integrate a series of benches into the garden that naturally point people out towards the view. And when people are turning their heads in, a centralized garden offers a desirable focal point for entertaining. Also, growing all your crops in one consolidated area means you won’t be stuck dragging a soggy gardening bucket around the perimeter of your roof every time you need to do a little digging.
Image Credit: HomeDesignLover.com
2. Raised Planting Beds
Visually, raised planting beds offer a much more interesting and dynamic aesthetic than having your plants grow at a single-angle level elevation. There are options for terracing, faceting, and adjusting the height of your planters in order to present a unique design element. This also makes seating much easier to carve out as it can be an integrated part of your planter systems. And from a maintenance standpoint, raising your planters off the roof deck creates a much better waterproofing condition that is easy to clean and will prevent clogs from happening in your drainage system. Keeping the planting beds separate from the actual residential roofing system prevents problems that could be a detriment to your home down the road.
Image Credit: Green-Urbanscape.com
3. Sculptural Focal Point
Between deck furniture, railing materials, lighting, BBQs, plants, trees and planting beds, there can be an awful lot going on with your roof deck space. Adding a visual or functional focal point will go a long way to consolidating the overall aesthetic of the roof deck without removing any of the necessary elements. This can take the form of a water feature, a light fixture, a fire-pit, or even some unique piece of artwork that will inevitably set your home apart from the rest of the skyline. It should be something that gives meaning to your exterior space, and something to talk about with guests while frying up burgers and serving up beers.
4. Plant Bamboo for Privacy
I know, I know, I went on and on about not subjecting your roof deck to anything that will detract from the view. However, in most urban environments, your roof deck will likely be in close proximity to a number of other roof deckers and creepy voyeurs. Adding a few strategically placed vertical elements will protect your privacy without taking away from what makes your rooftop space great. The best way to do this is with something natural and aesthetically pleasing especially if you decide to go with a wood deck platform. Bamboo is great because it grows anywhere and will go from sprout to forest in the blink of an eye. Also, it looks incredible and will give your rooftop deck the natural aesthetic it might be missing.
5. Fire Pit
You likely won’t have much protection from the chill of 30 mile an hour winds when trying to lounge on your rooftop deck, so having a heating element is vitally important. You could invest in something like an overhead heat lamp, but I’ve yet to see one that ever works properly and doesn’t look like it came from a 1960s Wal-Mart. Fire pits are the way to go. They naturally create gathering spaces for guests and families while providing a bit of extra warmth for those particularly chilly months. You’re going to want to use your rooftop deck year round, and this is the best way to stave off hypothermia. Fire features can be easily integrated into other garden and landscape elements, and won’t detract visually from the rest of the deck. A fire pit makes a great focal point, so planning your garden around such a feature is poised to take your rooftop deck to the next level.
Thank you for popping in for a visit! Have a wonderful day/night depending on where you are in the world! Go with God and remember to be kind to one another!
Toodles,
It’s probably good ideas for transform the rooftop decking space. Thanks for the tips.