The best way to use a rooftop space in Bangladesh or any country is rooftop gardening. This concept has become quite popular all around the world. As being an overpopulated country, the people of Bangladesh, especially the Dhaka City dwellers, have been planting all types of plants on their roofs.
Rooftop gardening can make the whole out of any underused or unused space, and it can certainly beautify the empty spaces as well. It is very environment friendly and can offer you fresh oxygen and sun exposure. This is why the best use of rooftop space in Bangladesh is rooftop gardening.
If you have free space on your rooftop, you should certainly try rooftop gardening for sure. Here is how you can do so with proper caring and tips as follows:
Options for Your Rooftop Garden
You can have multiple options for your rooftop garden because there are several ways to go in. The easiest option is to use raised beds and containers. It has a personal touch to it and therefore your garden will look the same you had in mind.
With this method, you can implement any gardening style using the grown plants in containers. In case of choosing the right plant, you can go from herbs to elegant plants. Containers and raised beds are the best options for your rooftop garden because they are flexible, light, affordable, and movable.
Fully green planted roofs are quite a trend these days where your roof will be covered with plants and soil. It adds great value in the environmental sense. But it is difficult to try this option by yourself. So, the personal touch remains absent with this option but you can go with the trend following this option.
Caring for Your Rooftop Garden
While caring for your rooftop garden using containers is similar to the one we do on the ground, there is some specific caring that a rooftop garden requires to flourish and beautify your rooftop. Here they are as follows:
Containers require watering from time to time, so watering with cans can create a nuisance. It is because of the inability of running water can out of the rooftop. Therefore, it would be a wise option to install drip irrigation and rain barrel.
Without structural integrity, no rooftop garden will hold for long. Therefore, you should ensure that the roof you are making can hold the weight. Hiring a professional can be an effective idea for implementing structural integrity.
As you have to carry the supplies and materials for your rooftop garden, so you better get access to all entry and exit places on the rooftop. You never know from where you may need to get in or out while working on the garden.
The roof is the best place to get heat because the sun constantly beats down on the roof throughout the day. There will be ambient heat beating down on your plants. You may also get a shade on the roof for yourself.
Rooftop gardens are affected by the strong winds mostly. To avoid that circumstance, you better need to make a fence around your garden. The fence will keep away the pets and children from your garden.
Try to make a garden where the plants can get full exposure to the sun. Otherwise, your plants will not grow properly. Making a rooftop garden where sun exposure is not available is not a good decision.
So, avoid the shaded place of a nearby terrace or building for rooftop gardening.
You must get a storage room to store all the necessary things for rooftop gardening, such as fertilizer, tools, buckets, compost, etc. Getting a place for storage is a great idea for any rooftop garden because it will keep you prepared with every necessary thing.
Rooftop Gardening Tips
Rooftop gardening may seem easy to many of you, but to think that way, you must master a few tips. Here are the tips to make rooftop gardening easy and beautiful:
Every plant has different characteristics so it requires different treatment as well. Picking the right position for your plant plays a pivotal role in making rooftop gardening easier.
You should get some plants in the open because they are sun-loving plants and put the others in the shade to keep them away from the ray.
Overwatering damages the root of the plants, so you better be careful while watering. Any damage to the plant will lead to the death of the plant.
So, you need to learn about the water requirements of the plants to make them grow properly with the right amount of watering.
Like human beings, plants also require feeding and fertilizer is the food they consume. For their proper growth, feeding fertilizer is a must. You can not skip that if you want to get your rooftop gardening right.
You can’t just put the same plants and fill them in your garden. That will ruin the bio-diversity of your garden. So, you better need to pick plants of a diverse ecological system to create a proper atmosphere for your plants.
How to Create an Urban Rooftop Garden
It’s not easy to create an urban rooftop garden without a proper idea about this concept. You are also required to learn all the necessary steps to create an urban rooftop garden. Here are the steps to create a rooftop garden given below:
Selecting plants for your garden plays a pivotal role in creating an urban rooftop garden. You need to consider the conditions of the weather on your roof and choose the plants according to it.
Do not choose the plants randomly because it will not be an ideal option for an urban rooftop garden.
When your roof is open to sun exposure, try choosing the sun-loving plants. They will grow properly on your roof and you do not even need to do much for that.
To plant the trees, you will require a few plant beds or containers. Either you can buy them from the market or you can make them by customized order. Selecting the containers will have an impact on the look of your garden.
This is why most urban people make customized containers for their gardens. It makes the garden a heavenly place. So, to get a beautiful garden, selecting the containers is important.
When you are done with picking the plants and containers, it is time to make the fence to protect your plants from the strong wind, pets, and children. Planting the trees in your desired containers may create the garden you are looking for. But a fence or wall will keep that garden protected all the time.
So, you should set up the wind blocks to protect your garden from any unwanted situation. This is the best way to maintain a garden for a very long time.
The next step is to prepare the soil for the plants. Soil preparing is a tough job and without proper knowledge, you will just make a mess.
As you will not have any access to the ground soil, you have to bring the ground soil up here and prepare it for plantation. After preparing the soil, get them into the containers.
Now it’s time for the most exciting part of rooftop gardening, planting the plants in the containers. You need to dig a hole according to the size of the root of your picked plant.
Then simply put the plant inside of that hole and cover it with soil so that the plant sticks there properly.
You must need to do all these delicately. Otherwise, you may break the root of your plants. It will ruin the entire plan of rooftop gardening for you.
Finally, the most important part of urban rooftop gardening is maintenance. Without proper maintenance, no garden will last for a month or two. So, you need to maintain the garden in the proper way to make it last longer.
You need to feed fertilizers, water them, and provide them with their preferred environment to keep them in their right shape. Try to water them daily and feed fertilizers during the first few weeks. This will ensure the longevity of your rooftop garden.
Wrap Up
When you create rooftop gardens, you can make the best use of rooftop space in Bangladesh. In this period of global warming, rooftop gardens are a must to keep the green nature alive on our Mother Earth. As we are cutting down the trees to make buildings, so it would be balanced if we at least do rooftop gardening.
It can be a great idea to take rooftop gardening as a hobby or to pass the leisure time. Urban people especially should utilize this opportunity and make the best out of it. Hopefully, this article will guide them on the right path and help them create a rooftop garden easily.
June 9, 2022