Roof Gardens London
Some people may want a roof garden in the city of London, England as they may want an apartment or house that has a garden on it so they can have a nice garden area to relax in. They may have knowhere else top put their garden so they they put the garden on the roof. They may want wildlife to flock to the garden and may want their garden to be a green area of the city. They may want a roof garden as something to impress their buddies with or they may want a garden as they want to help the environment and help the place look nicer.
A roof garden is any garden on the roof of a building. The City of London is a geographically small city within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which, along with Westminster, the modern conurbation grew. The City’s boundaries have remained almost constant since the Middle Ages, and hence it is now only a tiny part of the much larger London metropolis. It is often referred to as the City or the Square Mile, as it is almost exactly one square mile in area.
Humans have grown plants atop structures since antiquity. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, architectural enhancement, habitats for wildlife and recreational opportunities. Available gardening areas in cities are often seriously lacking, which is likely the key impetus for many roof gardens. The garden may be on the roof of an autonomous building which takes care of its own water and waste. Hydroponics and other alternative methods can expand the possibilities of roof top gardening by reducing, for example, the need for soil or its tremendous weight. Plantings in containers are used extensively in roof top gardens. Planting in containers prevents added stress to the roof's waterproofing. One high-profile example of a building with a roof garden is Chicago City Hall.
The related idea of a living machine is based on the most basic mode of gardening: dumping wastes (compost and sewage, appropriately broken down, usually in some specialized ditch or container) on the soil, and harvesting food which, when processed, generates compost, and when eaten, generates sewage. In most of the world, this kind of very tight closed loop gardening is used, despite certain health risks if necessary precautions are not taken. Compost including human or pet waste should reach thermophilic conditions and age for at least a year before being used. Manure from vegetarian animals is safe without these measures.
For those who live in small apartments with little space, square foot gardening, or (when even less space is available) living walls (vertical gardening) are wonderful solutions. These use much less space than traditional gardening (square foot gardening uses 20% of the space of conventional rows; ten times more produce can be generated from vertical gardens). These also encourage environmentally responsible practices, eliminating tilling, reducing or eliminating pesticides, and weeding, and encouraging the recycling of wastes through compost. In small apartments, a Bokashi compost system is more practical than conventional composting.
A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and soil, or a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. This does not refer to roofs which are merely colored green, as with green roof shingles. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. Container gardens on roofs, where plants are maintained in pots, are not generally considered to be true green roofs, although this is an area of debate. Rooftop ponds are another form of green roofs which are used to treat greywater. Finally, the term green roof may also be used to indicate roofs that utilize some form of green technology, such as solar panels or a photovoltaic module. Green roofs are also referred to as eco-roofs, vegetated roofs, living roofs, and greenroofs.
A green wall is a wall, either free standing or part of a building, that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and, in some cases, soil or an inorganic growing medium. They are also referred to as living walls, biowalls, or vertical gardens.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, also known as the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis, near present-day Al Hillah in Iraq (formerly Babylon), is considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. They were built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BCE. The lush Hanging Gardens are extensively documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. Through the ages, the location may have been confused with gardens that existed at Nineveh, since tablets from there clearly show gardens. Writings on these tablets describe the possible use of something similar to an Archimedes' screw as a process of raising the water to the required height.
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