Gardening has long been an ideal hobby and recreation for both the old and the young, and with sports and tea, is increasingly popular, satisfying the urban desire to return to nature via a continuous phenomenon that delights its observers every day.
But, in Taipei, as other big cities, limited space and high-cost land have resulted in the proliferation of high-rise apartment dwellings and automobile traffic. Owning an urban garden is a luxury few can afford, and the search for extra urban recreation space has focused both official and citizen attention.
"Impasse is followed by change," said a wiseman, and unexpectedly, the comfortable, reinforced-concrete towers of the urban dweller have themselves supplied the space. Sunny high-rise rooftops are ideal for gardening.
As long ago as 1974, the development division of the Taipei City Government formulated a Point Plan for Establishment of Demonstrated Roof Gardens, the beginning of official involvement in improving city life through aero gardening. The division chose one rooftop household each in the Sungshan, Taan, and Chungshan districts of Taipei to be demonstration "farms." All necessary seeds, soil, and fertilizers were provided free of charge, and three professional horticulturists were assigned the overall "landscape design" task. City park technicians aided in the gardening. The project's initial success won general applause and paved the way for an enlarged program.
In 1975, adoption of a Regulation for Establishment and Management of Roof Gardens indicated the city government's recognition of safety and other factors and its intention of promoting expansion of the rooftop network. In late 1976, Taipei's "Parterre (container-gardening) Project" confirmed the city's determination, through city sponsorship of roof gardens as elements of its new Environmental Rearrangement Plan for the Yuanshan and Airport Districts. This three-year project was scheduled to be carried out in three stages-beginning with the Yuanshan and Sungshan districts, then spreading to the rest of the city. However, the program's popularity resulted in an indefinite extension after the three-year deadline had passed.
To participate in the program, Taipei residents of apartments with sound-structured rooftops apply to district offices for an on-the-spot investigation to assure all the qualifications are met.
If the roof is approved, the city will deliver such cultivation materials as rice husks and soil, fertilizers, flower bulbs, seeds, young grass covers, etc. Each household is limited to a single delivery, and must provide its own containers, pots, stands, and other facilities.
Lai Tse-san, public advisor of the Taiwan Plant Growing Association, believes the establishment of aero gardens has enlarged citizen participatory enthusiasm for the city's overall beautification efforts. The monochrome, contemporary urban building formats are topped with green, fresh, natural foliage, an environmental blessing benefiting everyone, including the growing horticultural industry.
To stimulate public interest in plant cultivation and attention to the possibilities of roof gardening, the city sponsors regular seminars and visits to unusual roof gardens. In addition, annual May competitions select outstanding gardeners.
Stepping up to the roof access door to competition winner, Mr. Kuo's aero garden over a seven-story apartment building on Tung Hwa Street, a natural panorama comes into view. A broad grass-covered area occupies two-thirds of the square rooftop amid two lines of giant potted cypress shrubs. Red begonias, yellow roses, white gardenias, purple morning glories, and numerous other blooms flaunt their beauty in pots or flats, wherever the host's ingenious creativity flows. A still-bare iron pergola erected close to the roof entrance stands in graceful alienation from the dull-gray surrounding rooftops.
Mr. Kuo's roof garden also features a tiny arched bridge overpassing a small pond. A swarm of goldfish flashes its breath-taking metallic colors, swimming freely in a special heaven. The leaves of a nearby weeping shrub softly whisper as they sway in the breeze. Further on, a small artificial mountain rises against the blue sky at the end of the pond, echoing Taipei's own circling mountains ranging hazily in the distance. Caged birds chirped in one corner, as a dog barked his nervousness.
"My husband is retired, a former assistant manager for an automobile dealer," said Mrs. Kuo. "He has been a gardener for many years. He designed everything himself, and enjoys the daily gardening routines."
An added function of their roof garden, Mrs. Kuo pointed out, is the insulation of the downstairs ceiling from scorching summer temperatures.
At dawn and in the evenings, Kuo's family strolls in their aero garden, enjoying nature in the sky above a major world metropolis, crowded with cars.
In the garden of Ong Peng-siong, assistant general manager of the Yuasa Battery Taiwan Co., Ltd., entertainment space is the main boon. Their miniature landscape provides an ideal place to greet friends. In the evenings, Ong and his friends savor tea, relax in wrought iron patio furniture, and recall adventures-past. Hundreds of potted plants line neat wooden racks on the 70-ping (2,100 sq. ft.) rooftop over their 5th-floor apartment on Tai Yuan Street. Ong and his nephew, his major gardening assistant, began collecting grotesquely-shaped, trained, and Bonsai plants last October. They decided the original garden lacked flair, and transformed it into the present potted-plant center. A camel-shaped pine, goat-evoking elm, and a rabbit-imitating banyan reveal a wistful fondness. Ong pointed out a miniature banyan with a stone tightly encircled in its extended roots, "It took at least ten years to grow like this. We spend a lot of time trucking our way across Taiwan hunting down potted fancies."
Bamboo curtains are draped overhead to protect Ong's rare plants from the blazing sun. Two broad-brimmed farm hats, hoses, clippers, sprinklers, shovels, hand cultivators, and other accessories, stacked close to the access door, proclaim Ong's daily efforts.
"Sitting under the moon and stars, breathing the flower fragrance, and viewing my potted plants, sprouting with young, green leaves, how can I find fault with the city?" Ong asked rhetorically.
Taipei's citizens increasingly share such motivation—and rooftops—so they can step more frequently out of their busy city into the world of nature, just above their heads.