Sit Back and Enjoy the View From This Brooklyn Rooftop Garden

The polish and attention to detail that come from being a design professional didn’t prevent Brook Klausing from letting go a little in his own garden. Klausing, who runs a high-end residential landscape company in New York, embraced imperfection as he transformed his four-story apartment building’s barren rooftop into a lush urban garden. The garden, in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, incorporates salvaged furniture, handmade pieces and an assortment of planters and found objects.

Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: Brook Klausing
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Size: 800 square feet (74 square meters)

Klausing’s rooftop makes you want to kick back and watch the world go by. Lavender, sage and grasses sway around lounge chairs and a portable outdoor fire pit. Views of Fort Green Park, downtown Brooklyn and lower Manhattan recede into the sunset over lush, overgrown perimeter plantings. “It kinda ended up taking on this beach vibe,” he says.

Klausing says he likes to come up here and enjoy the roof after work, taking in the sunset and surrounding views as often as he can.

“It’s the most used room eight months out of the year,” he says. “I even sleep out there.” And though he lives alone, he doesn’t close himself off up on the roof. “A couple of my friends have keys and come chill on the roof when I’m not around. When you have a garden, it’s always good to have babysitters.”


The urban setting hasn’t prevented wildlife, both whimsical and real, from finding its way into the garden. Here we see Teshan, a plastic deer that Klausing added. “He has a local squirrel friend we call Mr. Fitness, because he is always running laps around the garden,” Klausing says.


Klausing took advantage of his rooftop’s full sun exposure over the summer by growing herbs and other warm-season edibles in terra-cotta pots and aboveground planters. “I forgot how fun gardening can be and fell back in love with it this past season,” he says. He says that though his garden survives with minimal care, watering is a continuous chore: “With roofs it’s always irrigate or die,” because container gardens dry out faster, especially on exposed rooftops.

Container Garden Basics: How and When to Water Potted Plants

Tell us: Do you have a rooftop garden? Share descriptions of it and pictures in the Comments section.


In a corner of the deck Klausing built a makeshift outdoor shower using a vintage galvanized tub and a rain wand attached to a rooftop hose. “When I grow up, I’ll do a proper shower,” he says.


Friends visit the roof even after the sun goes down, and Klausing hosts outdoor movie nights when it’s not too cold. Everyone pulls up floor cushions or a log to catch a view of the sunset before tucking in for the movie projected on an outdoor screen.


A couple months ago friends gathered for a showing of the movie 9 to 5.


On other evenings, the rooftop becomes the dining room. Klausing built the outdoor dining table with lumber salvaged from the Coney Island Boardwalk and supplemented it with dining chairs from Crate & Barrel.


“One night me and my architect buddy just started drawing notes over everything,” he says. “I took a picture the next day as a reminder of things to do.”



He made this kitchen island/potting bench with a bluestone slab he dug up in a Brooklyn backyard and branches he cut using a pruning handsaw and a Leatherman tool.


BEFORE: The roof started out pretty bare. Here is a view of it in winter.


More: More Houzz guides to urban gardens

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