I've lived in urban apartments for all of my adult life, which means I haven't had a garden, and I certainly haven't had a victory garden. That might explain my fascination with green roofs. I love 'em.
Point is, we want to see your green roofs! Please send images to greensubmissions@huffingtonpost.com. We'll look at images of green roofs at your homes, your workplaces, or even places around your hometown that you want to show off (ask around -- there has to be one with a cool view somewhere, right?).
Let us know about the roof in a few sentences, too!
Then we'll pick the best images to put into a slideshow here on HuffPost Green -- and maybe we'll have a vote to see which roof the readers like best. You don't have to send us giant images, but it's helpful if they're 600x400 or larger.
And these photos, of course, should be photos you've taken or have the rights to, since we're going to be posting them here. Don't send them if they're not yours.
FYI: We were experiencing a small problem with the submissions email earlier today, but it's now working properly, so send away!
If you don't already know...
A green roof is where you've got a little vegetation on your roof, which helps with insulation, it helps fight the urban heat island effect and it looks nice. For more, check out this guide on how to make a green roof from our friends Rebekah and Stephen Hren.
Here are a few examples of green roofs:
Amy Norquist, who supplied us with the above photos, is president of Greensulate. She also gave me these new reasons to appreciate green roofing:
They also dramatically increase the life of the roof itself and act as a fire retardant. They provide habitat for birds and bees and they look so much better than the common tar and gravel version. And municipalities recognize the benefits too. Green roofs dramatically decrease the volume of storm water runoff and they clean the air and decrease (summertime) temperature in urban environments. A recent study by Columbia University and NASA have placed green roofs (in combination with street trees) as a top strategy for mitigating the affects of global warming.
While it is essential to assess the structural capacity of any roof prior to installing a green roof, there are systems as light as 10lb per square foot and engineers are working on even lighter systems. It is also good to make sure the roof itself is sound and waterproof. Ideally a green roof is installed on a brand new roofing membrane, complete with warranty.
So, if you've got a green roof, photograph it and send it our way. If you don't, do what I do: close your eyes and pretend for a minute that you've got the scratch to build one. And if you've never heard of green roofing, be on the lookout in your own town -- there might be a few around that you didn't know to look for.