New Gardening Highs

FLORA IS SPROUTING all over Seattle rooftops, balconies and decks. As we flock to the city to take up residence in apartments and condos, gardening has gone vertical. To lure buyers, one new condo project is marketing P-Patches on the roof. Whether cooks, flower arrangers or transplanted suburban gardeners, city-dwellers are resourceful at claiming every inch of outdoor space as garden plot. No matter if it means hauling sacks of soil up in the elevator, watering carefully to keep from splashing your downstairs neighbor's dinner party, or confining your ambitions to a tomato or two.

"We have aphids up here, but no slugs," says Jeff Hedgepeth of his and partner John Medlin's sumptuous foliage gardens squeezed onto minuscule terraces nine floors up at the Parkview Plaza on First Hill. When Hedgepeth sold his award-winning, tropical-themed garden on Capitol Hill a year ago, his friends were incredulous. How could such a trend-setting gardener move to a condo? "It was easy," says Hedgepeth who is reveling in his new-found freedom from plant tyranny. He's determined never to be tied down to fussy plants again.

"I call the look modified chaotic," he says of his potted gardens, squeezed onto three terraces, each only 4 feet wide. He's found balcony gardening windier than he expected, with less sun than he'd hoped for. The neighboring buildings cast shadows, and along with a big view come strong gales. Hedgepeth doesn't need to worry about the weight of all the big pots, though, because the terraces are solid steel and concrete. Which is a good thing, because Hedgepeth's gardening has never been on a modest scale. "I've always suffered from crowd control," he says of his characteristic overflowing planting style.

While Hedgepeth may be space-challenged, it hasn't limited his creativity. From fat canna lilies and bright red geraniums to an edible bay tree and a variety of herbs, Hedgepeth's garden remains as eclectic and over-the-top as ever.

Gallery owner Greg Kucera's condo garden, a mile or so north, is as intensely urban as Hedgepeth's new digs, yet on a far more expansive scale. He and partner Larry Yokum share an entire commercial rooftop with one other condo, divided into common and private spaces. Nearly 15,000 square feet of rooftop allows for a rotating display of art as well as a vegetable garden, trees and a wisteria-draped pergola. Kucera, who grew up in rural Gold Bar, was familiar with galvanized feed troughs, so he ordered a number of them from King Feed in Enumclaw. Round, shiny troughs holding maples, pine trees, shrubs and flowers break up expanses of gravel and pavers. Boulders, statuary and vine-encrusted lattice divide the space and provide some shade and windbreak on the wide-open expanse of roof. A flat, metal-edged pond acts like a big puddle to reflect the sky and passing clouds.

Over in one corner is what Kucera calls the farm, complete with worm and compost bins, a cutting garden, raspberries, dahlias and tomatoes. The wind and heat necessitated a drip system, but now everything is growing so lushly you'd never guess at the learning curve it took to garden successfully so high in the sky. Bees have found the cutting garden, buzzing happily in the nasturtiums, daisies and lupines. The Space Needle and church steeples create an effective, if unexpected, backdrop for tall stalks of corn. "Last year we had a harvest party," says Kucera. "Who would ever have thought we could grow corn on top of Bartell's?"

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times staff photographer. Jacqueline Koch is a writer and photographer living in Seattle.