San Francisco Rooftop Edible Garden

A small Mission backyard and the roof above it, worked as one garden.

The project

The garden went up as well as out.

In the Mission District ground is scarce. This house had a small backyard and a roof it wasn't using — so the garden took both.

The roof was engineered to carry the load as part of the house remodel. That comes first — planters don't simply go on top of an existing roof.

Powder-coated aluminum and fiberglass planters run the length of what had been an exposed deck, lit under their rims so the garden works after dark. Laser-cut screens break the wind without giving up the skyline.

Two stories down, a spiral stair lands in that backyard — wood-clad beds, gravel paths, a mature lemon, and passionfruit — so a narrow city lot reads as one garden, street to roofline. I led the design at Farmscape.

San Francisco rooftop edible garden at dusk — raised planters glowing with warm LED light beneath a pink sky, laser-cut metal privacy screens silhouetted against the city — The roof planters at dusk, lit under their rims so the garden works after dark.

San Francisco rooftop edible garden — raised vegetable beds against the privacy screens and distant skyline — Vegetable beds along the laser-cut screens, which break the wind without giving up the skyline.

San Francisco rooftop edible garden — cucumber vines trained up a red trellis — Cucumbers trained up a trellis in a roof planter.

San Francisco rooftop edible garden — leafy edible planting spilling over a planter edge, a laser-cut screen beyond — Edible planting spilling over a roof planter.

San Francisco Mission District backyard at dusk — timber bench seating lit from beneath beside a gravel path, the lemon tree overhead — Two stories down, the backyard benches are lit from beneath.

The spiral stair linking the levels — rising from the backyard gravel and lawn past the mid-level deck to the roof garden above — The spiral stair lands in the backyard and ties it to the roof.

Looking down into the Mission District backyard — a small city lot with a fruit-laden citrus tree, timber bench seating, gravel, a square of lawn, and raised edible beds around the edges — From above, the narrow backyard: gravel, a square of lawn, wood-clad beds and the mature lemon.

San Francisco Mission District backyard garden at dusk — black chairs on gravel beside a square of lawn, timber bench seating lit from beneath, sunflowers and a fruiting citrus along the fence — The backyard at dusk, seating on the gravel beside the lawn.

San Francisco Mission District backyard garden — mature lemon tree over a lit lower garden at dusk — The mature lemon over the lower garden.

San Francisco rooftop edible garden — orange nasturtium bloom in close detail among the edible planting — Nasturtium among the edible planting.

Project credits

Design team — FarmscapeLara Hermanson (principal), Sharon DeBell — lead designer & project manager

PlantersGreen Theory

ForemanDalton Carter

PhotographySharon DeBell

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