Now that February is upon us, the end of winter is in sight, which means that within a few weeks, the first flowers of spring will be upon us.

Unfortunately, in a densely-populated city like Portsmouth, the amount of greenery and colour will be increasing by rather less than in more suburban and rural locations, especially for those without gardens of their own. However, If this is true for you and you have a flat roof, there may be a solution right there.

The fact is your flat roof does not have to be a bare and barren place. It can be the location of a little rooftop garden, with lots of attractive potted plants to bring some colour where there once was none.

In an article updated in November, Horticulture Magazine wrote how a rooftop garden can be a wonderful home project, with the possibility of growing your own food or creating an attractive floral display.

However, the article warned that weight can be an issue and stated that it is important to seek expert advice before proceeding, as the one thing you don’t want is to place more weight on the flat roof than it can stand.

This is where flat roof specialists can help, not only by advising on how much weight your roof can take, but by undertaking work to strengthen it. This may be combined with other maintenance work to get the roof in better shape if required, as well as ensuring that irrigating your plants does not lead to leaks of water under the roof and into the home.

An alternative way of making your roof greener is to cheat, using artificial turf. As Almost Grass noted in an article on the subject, a flat roof can certainly accommodate this.  

Alternatively, you may even combine the two, with an artificial grass layer with pots and planters on top of it, creating your own little oasis in the middle of the concrete city.