Hey friends,

I have a relative that manages parking garages downtown and we've been having discussions about an urban garden on unused roofs of a garage. I'm new to gardening, only started last summer, so I'm hoping people here can lend their knowledge to what could be a pretty cool nonprofit project!

The project would be in smack downtown Indianapolis, 7 floors up. The roof is 100% exposed to sunlight. We can have access to the building and elevators to tend to the gardens, transport water, etc. as much as necessary. Is there a reason this wouldn't work?

As far as the actual gardens, our favorite idea so far is to build Ikea Growroom spheres (Google Ikea growroom) right on the roof. They might need to be customized, or we can also use typical planter boxes depending on what we grow. If you think the spheres are a no-go I'm completely open to hearing alternate ideas.

All produce will feed food-insecure kids at inner city schools!

If any seasoned gardeners are willing to give input on why "rooftop farming" may or may not work I'd be very grateful. Before it moves any further I want to think through all the potential problems. And if you'd like to contribute more or join the team please don't hesitate to message me!

Thanks!

You might check into how the city of Chicago does their rooftop gardens. Might be able to find some advice or resource links. Summer in Indy - you'll be hauling a lot of water and maybe watering every day. Might want to look into rain barrels with a funnel on top to catch rain water. Those spheres are neat but do they allow enough space between the tiers for taller plants like tomatoes or peppers? Think space allowance for veg plants rather than herbs.

Cool project, I would consult with an engineer to see if there would be any reasons as to why you could not do it structurally or drainage wise.

First I applaud you and your efforts. :applaud:

If the building is a garage then my largest concern likely doesn't apply and that concern is the weight you'd be adding to the roof. Soil and the water that you would add to the soil isn't exactly light. Another concern would be water damage. Sure roofs already get rained on but water that drains off is different than water that sticks around. Again a parking garage wouldn't have this concern since the structure is concrete and no one is living underneath the garden.

I saw the Ikea Growrooms last week. They are 'neat' but I'm not sure how efficient they would be for veggie farming. A lot of veggie plants grow large, like tomato, pepper, cucumbers, zucchini, etc, For those, container gardening might be best. I would try to stick to something that has a bottom in it but with drainage holes. I'm not sure if those feed bins that seem to be the fashion craze have bottoms or not but if they do, they might be ideal.

What is the closest source for water? I know you said that you have access to elevators but depending on your garden size, you may need a lot of water especially with the hot concrete reflecting heat. Can you drive up to the roof of the garage? At least you wouldn't have to take the water from the car to the elevator to the garden. Maybe a rain collection system on the roof?

I looked on YouTube and there are a lot of different ideas for rooftop gardening. Depends on the $$$ you want to put into it. I would KISS and grow on your successes.

Great idea. Great intention. I seriously love this type of stuff and can't wait to see how you grow.

Wow thanks so much for everyones positive feedback and info. Absolutely going to check into Chicago's rooftop gardens. Rain collection --duh! Definitely going to implement that into the plans and probably mostly container gardening. Off to do more research!

St. Louis has a pretty extensive roof-top gardening program but I don't believe it's a city-run project. As I recall, it's being done on old buildings.

Here's one of the rooftop garden projects in St. Louis.

Urban Garden STL
https://www.urbanharveststl.or...

A search for St. Louis Rooftop Gardens will take you to some more.

Check out Larry Hall's raingutter gardening system. I've watched some of his YouTube videos, and I think he does Facebook too. In fact, I think he has a store on the web that sells supplies for this type of gardening.

I prefer to garden in dirt in the ground, not containers, so I don't have much interest in what he's doing; but if I was gardening on top of a parking ramp, I'd definitely give his stuff a look.