Rooftop food gardens a growing trend
Gardens have been hitting new heights in urban centres across Canada.
As highrise buildings literally raise the profiles of urban landscapes, we often lament that green space is sacrificed for concrete and glass. But if we think of a vertical tower as a vessel for soil and plant life, what are the possibilities?
If a condo unit includes a balcony, and that balcony has been engineered to take the weight of not just the residents but also water-laden pots and containers, consider the horticultural possibilities. Multiply the balcony by the number of units in a typical highrise, add the penthouse suites with rooftop access, and there is an impressive opportunity to multiply the green space that would otherwise exist only in the building’s footprint.
The key is to recognize and take advantage of those opportunities.
In the historic centre of Toronto, across the street from St. Lawrence Market, stands a series of buildings that house an impressive collection of balconies and rooftop gardens. Market Square condominiums, a nine-storey midrise structure, houses more than 600 residents in 287 suites. Most of the condos include a balcony.
During a recent visit, we were introduced to enthusiastic gardeners — proud homeowners and renters alike. They have created a community network of green thumbs who regularly meet to share growing tips, exchange fruits and vegetables, and celebrate the bounty of their vertical oasis with food and wine.
Market Square resident Len Kubas, a renowned research consultant who is now retired, calls himself “farmer Len.” The moniker fits, since he grows an abundance of food in his outdoor space. In addition to his edible harvest, he produces blooms that attract pollinators like butterflies and bees to his condo’s outdoor space.
“There is an active group that volunteers to maintain the flower and herb plantings in public places,” Kubas explained. “Salivan Landscape provide wonderful large plantings around the complex.”
The planting of rooftop gardens is not limited to residential communities. We visited a grocery store in Montreal recently where 25,000 square feet of roof space was dedicated to growing food and flowers, and producing honey starting in 2017. A horticultural friend from Montreal sent us to an IGA grocery store: IGA Extra Famille Duchemin, in the city’s Ville St-Laurent borough.
Built in 2016, this store was designed to take the weight of a serious rooftop garden. The results are astounding. Coowner Richard Duchemin told us the store has the largest commercial rooftop food garden in the country. Imagine growing more than $80,000 a year worth of food on a roof. There is no carbon footprint, as the food does not get loaded on a truck, but instead takes an elevator from the roof to the shop floor in seconds.
Et voilà: a model for the future of food retailing right here in Canada.
The five full-time staff who manage the store’s roof garden also grow flowers, which are sold by the bunch inside on the shop floor. Those same flowers produce nectar and pollen for foraging bees that — you guessed it — live on the IGA’s roof and produce fresh honey that is also sold in the store.
If the idea of a grocery store growing food for sale seems strange and rare, that’s because it is. On the other hand, the concept of using our flat, vertical space to grow plants and even trees is so simple, it’s astonishing that we didn’t think of it a long time ago. But, you know what? We did. Market Square condos were designed by Jerome Markson in the late 1970s and built in 1981-82.
The St-Laurent IGA store’s automated irrigation, sophisticated composting system and organic approach to growing are not new, though engineering the rooftop may be.
In an age when our young generations are challenging elected officials, organizations and authorities to get their/our environmental act together, there is some comfort in knowing that sustainable ideas have been around awhile.
And, as we expand and speed up the implementation of green technologies, the sky is the limit.