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When avid St. Louis gardener Barbara Firlit moved into her new penthouse in the Louderman Lofts Building downtown in 2005, she expected a few challenges in establishing a garden on her spacious terrace. What she didn’t anticipate was that she’d soon be adding two new unusual essentials to her gardening bag-of-tricks: namely – bubble wrap and a shop vac. The bubble wrap earned its place as insulation for Barbara’s container plants, trees and shrubs. The wrap, which helps container-bound perennials survive St. Louis winters, is inserted inside pots before the dirt is added. “The wind chill is phenomenal up here,” she said, noting that the first frost in her rooftop garden occurred earlier than in its earthbound counterparts. The shop vac became Barbara’s ally in taming an unexpected foe: plant “debris.” “When you’re working in your backyard, you don’t realize how much debris there is. Up here, you’ve got to have a way to collect and dispose of every little leaf and bud,” she said. Enter the shop vac, a quick and effective way to manage debris.

Barbara is far from alone in her quest to enjoy both gardening and loft living. Not content with indoor plotted plants or a few decorative hanging baskets of annuals, loft residents in every major city are finding ways to transform their balconies, terraces and rooftops into serious gardens that are distinguished as much by beautiful perennial and annual plantings as they are by the panoramic views. In St. Louis, due to local and state laws governing use of tax credits for renovating historic buildings, the increasingly popular loft gardens must remain invisible from the street.

Legal restrictions, debris and cold are not the only challenges that loft gardeners face. Storm winds can uproot plants and break pots, while dry summer winds pull moisture from container soil. A hot day in St. Louis can mean that the temperature on a loft terrace soars early in the day – Barbara’s terrace thermometer registered 108 degrees at 7:30 one sunny morning.

Barbara’s basic weapons of choice are water and improvised wind-breaks. “Watering becomes an exercise in patience in the summer,” she said. She hoses down the rooftop daily during hot weather, and carefully monitors individual plant moisture to avoid both over and underwatering. To cut the wind, Barbara uses strategically placed, hefty garden statuary and interlocking blocks.

Despite the extra care that must be taken to keep a loft garden aloft, the pleasures that it offers make it worthwhile. Barbara’s garden is filled with an eye-pleasing array of plants, including perennial grasses, cryptomeria, hydrangea, potato vine, a rosebush, evergreen ground cover, hardy English ivy and herbs. Heavy garden angels and cherubs help support and protect pots. A birdbath, trellises, an obelisk, a sundial, a weathervane, a park bench and a modernistic one-person hammock all have their places, as well. A bubbling Tim Torrens fountain and visiting finches, starlings and hummingbirds add motion and sound to this bit of nature in an urban setting. During summer, a wide array of annuals brings even more color to the Firlit garden.

Loft dwellers typically pride themselves on learning how to make the most of their outdoor living space. Barbara and her husband, Dr. Casey Firlit, chief of pediatric urology at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, often dine on their terrace in warm weather, just in time to watch the sunset and enjoy the cooling breezes. “It’s very pleasant in the evening, even on the hottest days,” Barbara said. “It’s also very private — a little haven with a great view.”