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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Rooftop gardens grow among the skyscrapers | csmonitor.com


Rooftop gardens grow among the skyscrapers csmonitor.com:

"In recent years, enthusiasm has grown for green roofs, hailed for harnessing rainwater that can overwhelm urban sewage systems, and keeping buildings warmer in winter and cooler in summer, lowering electricity use.

But amid increasing interest in fresh, local food, this season seems to herald the era of the rooftop farm. It’s as though somewhere someone decreed, “Roofs shall not lie fallow.” And a colony of entrepreneurs, residents, schoolteachers and restaurateurs set to work.

Flanner considered going to the country to farm — only to realize he didn’t want to leave the city, he just wanted to be a farmer. He quit his job at E-Trade and partnered with Annie Novak, 26, who had farming experience. The green-roof design firm Goode Green agreed to do the installation for free and the production company Broadway Stages agreed to pay for it, as an experiment on the roof of its Greenpoint building."