City farming on a commercial scale is not too far away.  These farms can be achieved by either using a group of rooftops within close proximity to each other or by growing plants on a vertical plane such as this vertical farm concept.  The garden roof farm concept is much more realisable now, as growing medias can be engineered to suit food production and the availability of natural sunshine means that large amounts of energy are not required to power lights as would be needed with walls. 
Perhaps the days of manual labour would come back and replace tractors.  Hundreds of jobs could be created in the city with the price of food staying the same or becoming cheaper as fertiliser, transport and packaging costs are greatly reduced or removed all together.
Green Roofs however would be much more susceptible to strong winds or other devastating climatic effects such as hail.  The vertical gardens could be grown under the protection of walls and windows and use solar power or other renewable energy sources to power the lights and fans.  Evaporation would be kept to a minimum thereby maximising water use but this could lead to mould and fungi problems which could very quickly wipe out whole crops.
If anyone reading this news article knows of any forward thinking restaurant owners that would like to be one of the first restaurants in Australia growing food on their roof then please let the Junglefy green roof team know.

I thought I would share some photos of the aftermath on one of our green roofs in Melbourne after the recent weekend storms.  Melbourne was lashed with hail stones the 'size of lemons' and received 40mm of rain in 30 minutes.  There are some great photos of the Races in Melbourne to give you an indication of the mayhem.

Considering the above, you could say that the roof faired pretty well.  Like any terrestrial landscape the damage to succulent foliage type plants is always a problem with hail.  In the same breath these types of plants will readily sprout roots from their fallen leaves and in the end probably result in a greater density of planting.

I have great faith in plants and expect to see the roof bounce back from this most unusual storm.

I have started a new blog showcasing growing food in a Sydney suburban garden in places food is not traditionally grown namely the roof of a chook house and a sunny brick wall.

The blog will closely follow the hurdles and successes and make available any findings that make growing food on garden roofs and vertical gardens possible for anyone.

The blog can be viewed by following this link to foodupthere

Please check it out.

Junglefy has had a busy start to the year with a number of exciting projects underway.  It is a clear sign that the demand for sustainable technologies is on the rise as confidence returns to the construction sector. 

Of the projects underway, three of them are living walls around the country using the ecoVert Pro green wall system. Junglefy has a double sided green wall in Melbourne that has been designed with no fixings into the floor.  The benefits of this mean that the wall can be moved to another premises in the coming years as the business grows without the need for rectification.  This is a five star green star fit-out and the vertical garden totals 30m².  Junglefy also has another green star green wall fit-out in Brisbane that totals 10m².  Our largest current project has commenced in Canberra where twelve vertical gardens are being installed over 12 floors of a new building.  The walls make use of low energy envirolux lamps and metal halide lighting.  The total of these vertical gardens is in excess of 100m².

Also on the drawing board are a number of green roof projects around the country.  Junglefy is involved in the construction of a garden roof project in the Blue Mountains that will utilise the ZinCo FD40 green roof system.  This system was chosen over other systems due to its water holding capacity, waterproofing protection and proven track record in green roof installations.

Other garden roof projects in the pipeline include schools in Tasmania and Sydney, a strata project in Sydney, a university and several other commercial projects.  Further updates on these projects will be provided as they develop further. So as you can see there are many exciting project on the go and we look forward to an exciting year ahead.

GREEN ROOF BEETROOT

I wanted to show you an example of some food I have been growing on the roof of my chook house.  This beetroot was grown in a 75mm media profile using only coconut fibre.  Slow release fertiliser and sub surface irrigation have been incorporated as part of the installation.  The smaller beetroots were grown in the garden and granted they may not have received the same amount of moisture it goes to show that there is a real opportunity to grow food on the rooftops in our towns and cities.

I have had great success growing all herbs, spring onions, peas, lettuce and spinach.  The shallow profile shows that food can be grown on existing buildings with retrofits, on shed roofs, dog houses or  any other such roof. 

I believe for rooftop installations where food is being grown, a mineral media is not essential as changing the growing media on a 2-5 year basis is easily done.  This can mean that lighter weight organic media can be used thereby creating a much larger scope for green roof installations.

This year Junglefy is the sponsor of the City of Sydney's Live Green House.  The Live Green House is a modular mobile home that showcases sustainable building practices and technologies that can be incorporated into new builds or retrofitted into existing buildings.  Junglefy showcased three technologies; the ecoVert™ Home, the ecoVert™ Pro and a dog house with a green roof.  All three technologies attracted a fantastic response and opened peoples minds to the opportunites of incorporating such technologies into their houses or apartments.
Please click on the following links for further details and a time lapse of the installation. Live Green House and Live Green Time Lapse
The Live Green house will be on display at Martin Place in Sydney on the 9th & 10th of November and again during Chinese New Year celebrations from the 12th - 14th of February 2010.