Rooftop Transformation

Moving from Pittsburgh where there was no end to the number of landscaping and home improvement projects that friends needed help with to England has been hard for me, with few chances to “get my hands dirty” and build/fix something. For this reason I have been really excited about the coming of nicer weather and the chance to go to work on “Nick’s Project Space” as Lauren calls it: the rooftop right outside a door in our living room. As you can see below, the roof was not much to look at, with 2 power lines running across it and a junk yard (why!?) in what looks like it should be a residential plot next to us.

After some green outdoor carpeting from Ebay, plastic furniture, and a trip to the garden center, we ended up with this:

I am really happy with how it turned out, and am most proud of the tensile structure holding up the bamboo screening. I anchored some steel-core clothesline to the bricks, then using two “masts” made of wood and picnic umbrella stands, I rigged up a system of tight lines that I tightened with a turn buckle till you could play them like a guitar. The bamboo just hangs on these and I left a door that can roll shut or open for access to the uncivilized badlands outside our green paradise.

Our rooftop vegetable garden and scenic junkyard

During the brief periods without rain here we have enjoyed grilling and eating outside, and it’s even possible to forget you’re in the city on a letting agents roof for awhile. A little green (even the plastic kind) goes a long way.