FRAGRANTARBOURS
WORDS BY ALICE GOTTESMAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUE ROYLE
While many high
flyers find it lonely at the some are discovering
it can be lovely there,
too, Roof-gardens are a
“crowning luxury in Hong
Kong, a lofty refuge for
those at the pinnacle of
success.
L
of ever a place was well suited for roof-gardens, it is surely Hong Kong, In this city where position counts, there's no loftier place to come home to after a harrowing day at the office. If you've got to work in a metropolis, there are few alternatives that offer such a short com- mute to paradise.
Why then, in a town that flaunts its assets, where property and privilege are prime badges of prestige, do only a hand- ful of penthouse residents make use of this crowning luxury? Liz Mackay, a founding member of the Hong Kong Gardening Society, summed up the rea- sons why it can be lonely at the top. "All the elements are against you," she says. "The heat fries everything. The rain pours down on everything. The sun bakes it. The wind destroys it."
Even if one ignores Mother Nature's fickle temperament, man-made prob- lems such as structural weaknesses must be taken seriously. One couple's roof- garden ended up on their dining table because they never considered the im- mense weight of soil and water.
Access is another problem. Since the sky's the limit, one doesn't think twice before buying mature, 20-foot trees at the nursery. It's when they arrive home and don't quite fit into the 10-foot lift that one begins to regret the purchase, especially when the only alternative is to drag them up many flights of stairs through the living room and finally onto
the terrace.
It's no wonder, then, that only a few individuals endure the toil to till the soil. There is absolutely no reason to be jeal- ous of these brave souls, even if we would like to step into their shoes on a sunny day. In fact, we should commend them for following Le Corbusier's dic- tum that roof-gardens are a way to re- claim a little bit of nature from the con- crete jungle.
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