The planters are now in place, and today the irrigation and electrical lines were laid. They run under the planters and pop up through their drainage holes.Irrigation is essential, or you'd be hand watering for about three hours a day, and the electricity is for low voltage up-lighting of key plants. Which I'm going to look for tomorrow.
Although the floor looks and is dead straight, below the pavers the roof slopes to the left of the picture toward a drain. All the planters are in fact different heights, as they sit right on the roof membrane (on tar mats and dunnage for drainage and protection), in order to maximise planting depth. We are not allowed, on this project, to have planters higher than the parapet wall between this terrace the neighours with the brick wall. In a word, lawsuits.
So the planters at this end (north) are shallower, and the planters at the far end (south) are deeper. The two black stripes on the brick wall indicate where a steel I-Beam runs across the terrace, meaning that it has good load-bearing capacity here. Otherwise the planters are against load-bearing walls.
Can't wait to see it planted. Vince will help me scout for some trees tomorrow on Long Island. He won't be touching any leaves. We have a baguette. We have saucisson. We have cornichons. We have brie. We have artisanal butter.
We are prepared.
excellent picnic makings...
ReplyDeletedon't let him step in any mud either.....
ReplyDeleteGreat to get the inside track on pot depth, drainage, RSJs and potential neighbour trouble!
ReplyDeleteAnd the picnic sounds pretty good, too
Vince, a full hazmat suit perhaps? Just in case? ;)
ReplyDeleteis this the project you called a "shade pit"?
ReplyDeletelooking forward to LI report.
If I were the neighbour, I wouldn't fuss or threaten regarding those planters - I'd just be thrilled to have a view of the transformed terrace.
ReplyDeleteSo impressive! I think I have to follow your blog and see how this progresses! Very exciting -- what kind of trees are you going to plant?? I agree with Rachel - you have lucky neighbors.
ReplyDeleteOh, so I've read through a good chunk of your prior posts and wondered to myself, how do you do all of the things you do? And why am I sitting in a stuffy, lifeless office everyday when I could be up on roofs designing green space? If only I could turn back the close, there's such much I would change. :)
ReplyDeleteKaren, it was great! All we needed was some vino, but I was working and driving, sigh.
ReplyDeleteBV - I kept him on a leash.
Dinahmow - I suppose I went on a bit. It's probably only interesting to me...It's just that these gardens are so often about so much more than plants.
Sigrid, heheheh. Shame, it's been awful, though.
Hey Donna, no that was also in Tribeca though. With the blue trellis! This has much more light, if you can believe it. LI was such fun. Report to follow.
Rachel, humph. One doesn't know the history, of course. But some people bite without barking in NYC.
JGH - check back soon. Trees: Franklinia, dogwood, Japanese maples, star magnolia, corylopsis, fringe tree...
Thomas - ha, but what about your huge big garden? That takes time :-)Actually, I think this is a career one can start any time, on a small scale, before deciding if it's workng enough to take it fulltime. I would also change things if I could turn back the clock, especially in terms of formal training. I secretly covet a Landscape Architecture degree from Harvard, but have to enjoy others vicariously through friends!!!