Greetings!
"My
green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning
to see things from the plant's point of view." ~H. Fred Ale
Happy May, everyone! Everywhere I look, gardens are bursting into leaf and bloom. It reminds me of when I first told my parents I was moving from Austin, Texas to New York City back in 2001.
"What will you do," my dad asked. "There are no gardens in New York."
I love this story because it shows the common misconception that gardens can't possibly exist in urban areas. Gardens in New York are simply harder to find than in other places. They are like little secret jewels nestled among skyscrapers. Look up from the sidewalk of just about any city street, and there you will see the tops of trees peeking out from roof gardens and terraces all around you.
The unexpected, precarious nature of city gardens makes them more interesting and valuable to those of us who seek them out.
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A Garden for All Seasons
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 Gardening Indoors
Sunroom gardens are an interesting approach to urban gardening. It's
not something I see all that often, but I hope that will change in
time. It makes perfect sense in cold climates like NYC to have an
indoor garden room that can be enjoyed year-round.
This sunroom
addition was part of a renovated apartment plan for a residence in the
West Village. It features large windows that allow plenty of sunlight
in for the plants to grow and thrive and an automated drip irrigation
system for instant watering and low-maintenance plants. The floor is
comprised of large slabs of blue stone that feel much like the stone
used in many outdoor patios.
Drainage for the irrigation system
is funneled through a channel cut into the stone along one wall. Each
planter in the sunroom contains its own hidden faucet in cabinets built
into the planters from below, where an irrigation timer and hoses are
also discreetly connected and run through each of the planters.
Another
benefit to having an indoor garden room is that it opens up a world of
tropical plants that normally wouldn't survive in a cold climate like
New York. The planters in this room contain Mexican feather grass,
citrus trees, passionflower and jasmine vines, rosemary, zizi zamias,
snake plants, and bromeliads.
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Custom Carpentry with Style
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 How to Create a Streamlined Look
The best way to create a truly custom-built, streamlined roof garden is to hire one carpenter to build everything so that the same materials and aesthetic are used throughout the garden.
The horizontally-planked fencing that surrounds this garden is very sleek and modern looking, so it fits in really well with the city skyline in the background much more than, say, a lattice-style fencing, which tends to have more of a country garden connotation. It also allows air and sunlight into the garden. It provides some privacy without the feeling of being completely "fenced in."
I love the way the A/C unit is also hidden by the same style of fencing in the middle back of the photo.
The curved planter is an interesting effect that can only be created using custom-built carpentry, since it's not something that is available already made from a nursery or other retailer.
The pergola over the kitchen area breaks up the facade of the building in an interesting way. Pergolas can also be constructed to provide shade on a sunny roof and to create a horizontal element, on top of which vines can be grown.
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