This is an account by one of our guardians, Finlay, who built the finest roof top garden in Chelsea (on a shoe-string!)
Deciding to build a roof garden has been one of my better life decisions. After all, who doesn’t have a roof garden in Chelsea? With the help of some pallets, housemates, and a few vans the garden came together in about 2 months with varying levels of intensity and beer.
The idea was to add some greenery to a pretty drab roof but seeing as this is the Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea that meant a bit more than a few plant pots. Without much thought I settled on a full grass lawn, a long sofa and some vertical flower beds which will hopefully be covered by vines come 2023.
Please excuse the rough edges… we could have put more effort into some of the aesthetics but no. The idea was to put some pallets down, line them with a geotextile membrane (I swear to never say those two words again), fill with soil and cover with turf. Meanwhile there would be a sofa made out of pallets and some vertical flower beds made out of er… pallets.
To my great dismay, I don’t have a photo of the original roof but I do have photos of day one in early May.
Laying down the pallet base…
Free soil!!!
With the help of our in-house magician we got this onto the roof for sorting. Lining being laid out in the background.
Laying the turf
Finished article!
The team!
Things I learnt:
Don’t overfill tiny flower beds with a million seeds. They will die.
Build a roof garden. Always.