Imagine gardening on a rooftop! I’m so excited to tell you more, so make a cup of tea and sit down with me for a few minutes.
There is a very beautiful and functional garden on the roof of the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver, and I was lucky enough to ask Kristyna Vogel, manager of Marketing and Public Relations, a little bit more about it. I asked her where the idea originated for a roof top garden at the Fairmont Waterfront? She told me that “The idea originated with our then executive chef Daryl Nagata who was a pioneer in the farm-to-fork movement – he wanted a space to grow herbs and a few vegetables for the kitchen.” But how could such a thing become a reality? Kristyna explained: “The 2,100 square foot irrigated garden was built in 1995 and is located on the 3rd floor of the hotel on the south-facing terrace and basks in full sun and became one of Vancouver’s first green roofs. The original garden was designed by Merle Michale and planted by NorVan Landscape Design, Ltd. with a total of 11 beds that hosted over 60 varieties of herbs. Fifty yards of top-quality soil mix were used to fill the beds and another 15 yards were added the following year.”
I wondered how was the decision made of what to plant, and if different “crops” are grown each year? “It has always been the prerogative of the executive chef on what gets planted each year and each executive chef has had their own vision for the garden. Chef Nagata was interested in herbs and indigenous plants, Chef Wright introduced honey bees, Chef Hauser always said if she wasn’t a chef she’d be a gardener and was very hands on planting everything herself and moved more to vegetables and Chef Suri has really moved back to herbs but ensuring the garden is pollinator friendly.” Kristyna commented.
Who takes care of the garden? Kristyna said, “Our executive chef oversees what gets planted with recommendations from our partners at the amazing non-profit Hives for Humanity, who then with a team of volunteers from the hotel, plant the garden and take care of weeding and general upkeep.”
The wonderful thing is that the produce gets used at the hotel. “Everything we grow gets used in our hotel restaurant ARC including herbs used for our garden-to- glass cocktails at the bar. We obviously are not able to grow enough produce on the roof to fully support our produce needs, so we augment our garden with fresh local fruits and vegetables from our partners at Hannah Brook Farm, Village Tomatoes and Sole Food urban gardeners. It would be remiss to not mention the 200 lbs. of honey we produce in our onsite apiary – this gets used for everything from housemade ice cream to honey lager. It’s also delicious just on its own.” says Kristyna.
Isn’t that amazing and trailblazing? Next time we have tea, I’ll tell you more about this stunning rooftop garden. You can visit the Fairmont’s sustainability page at http://www.fairmont.com/waterfront-vancouver/promotions/green- initiatives/.
The next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be on Wednesday, October 18 at 7:00 PM at SIGN on North Street. Our special guest speaker will be Sonja Pawliw telling us about growing terrariums. Terrariums are a beautiful “gardens on a tabletop” and Sonja will tell us what we need to get started! Please join us, everyone is welcome! You don’t have to be a member to come to the meeting.
Visit us at www.yorktonhort.ca. Have a great week!
