For an upstairs room looking across a lower roof, planting can bring a close, changing view into the home. That is a different pleasure from a distant horizon. It can make an addition more appealing from the house above it, provided the plants have somewhere suitable to grow.
In a Dover Heights renovation, extension or new home, we would draw that growing space alongside the accommodation. Its depth and edges affect the building beneath it. The useful comparison includes a planted roof, a more limited raised bed and garden retained at ground level.
Start with the exposure and the ground you have
Waverley's street-tree guidance identifies Dover Heights' exposed ridges, salt-laden winds and shallow soils over sandstone. Its frontline coastal zone is another particularly demanding setting. These descriptions explain why a generous-looking planting area may be difficult to establish; they do not establish the soil depth or wind conditions of an individual garden.
Record where existing planting succeeds, where walls give shelter and where the site is most exposed. Obtain appropriate landscape advice before deciding what a new roof should carry. The conditions above a room can differ from those beside it, even when the two are only a few metres apart.
Keep the survey and existing garden in view. An extension placed differently might preserve useful growing ground near the living room. Compare what that ground could contribute with what the proposed roof planting would offer from an upper bedroom or sitting room.
Draw the planting and the room in the same section
A line across the top of a proposed addition leaves an important design question unresolved. Where will the growing medium fit relative to the ceiling, roof structure, window sill and outer edge? Ask the landscape designer and engineer to establish the space and support needed for the intended planting, including its wet weight.
If a deeper planting zone raises the edge in front of an upstairs window, test the view while seated as well as standing. If accommodating it reduces the room's ceiling below, show that consequence inside. A slightly smaller planting area or a different roof arrangement may give both rooms a better result.
In a renovation, establish what the existing roof and supporting building can accommodate before drawing soil over it. A new addition can be designed for the chosen arrangement from the outset. Either way, the building and planting consultants need to work from the same section.
Choose between an outlook and a place to sit
Waverley's current green-roof provisions distinguish planting from roof recreation: the green roof is not to become a recreational area, and access is for servicing. A scheme for outdoor seating needs its own appropriate design and assessment. Do not combine the two simply by adding chairs to the planting drawing.
For a planted roof seen from indoors, study a restrained planting height against the window. Low vegetation can make a useful foreground without requiring the space or upkeep of a larger roof garden. Its actual suitability still depends on species, growing conditions and specialist advice.
A raised bed beside an outdoor sitting area presents another choice. Draw its full width and containing wall with the table, chairs and circulation. A small bed can occupy surprisingly much of a compact terrace once those edges are included; keeping planting in adjacent ground may leave a more comfortable seat.
Include water and future care in the building work
Your Home's green-roof guidance treats the planted surface as an assembly with structural, waterproofing, drainage and ongoing care requirements. We would coordinate those systems with the roof, rather than leave them to a landscape package added after the room is designed.
Work through how the selected system will be inspected, watered where necessary and renewed. Show a suitable servicing arrangement and ask the relevant specialists to resolve drainage, overflow and protection of the building below. The owner should understand which work can be done routinely and which will need an equipped contractor.
Compare the complete cost and care of that arrangement with a simpler roof and well-positioned ground planting. A planted roof can be a worthwhile part of a home, but it should retain a clear purpose after the construction and upkeep are understood.
Keep the mature garden in the whole proposal
Draw intended mature planting heights with the roof and neighbouring context. A species chosen to soften an edge could also change daylight or outlook as it grows. Dover Heights' exposed conditions make a considered planting proposal more useful than an image filled with uniformly lush foliage.
Waverley's residential guidance separately addresses open space, landscaped area and deep soil; its green-roof chapter leaves the recognition of a roof as landscaped area to a site-specific decision. Establish the applicable requirements for the address. Planting above a building should not be assumed to replace every function or requirement of ground garden.
Bring benssur photographs from the affected rooms, the available survey and a brief explaining what the garden should do. We can compare a renovation, extension or new-home layout with the growing space drawn honestly, so the planting and the rooms support one another.
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