- Growing food is magical

Students at UiO have as a goal to create more active and green roofs. Now the first rooftop garden is in place at Blindern.

— This space wasn’t used for anything, it was a dead zone. Now it’s alive, said Elin Helena Wyller, one of the initiators for the new rooftop garden on the terrace of Niels Henrik Abel’s house.

She and three other students at the Centre for Environment and Development (SUM) at the University of Oslo (UiO) started the group 'UiO Rooftop Initiative' in January, and this week the rooftop garden is close to being done:

— The intention is to create more environmentally friendly roofs at UiO. A vegetable garden is just one of many possibilities. You could also have solar panels, sedum roofs with moss that gathers water, or you could just paint roofs white to reflect heat, said Wyller.

— Magical

On the same day as Universitas meets them, Wyller and the rest of the volunteers are planting seeds, re-filling soil and watering plants. Wyller distributes seeds of many different kinds to the rest of the group.

— Growing food is magical. I’m interested in how society can become more self-sufficient, local, and sustainable. Growing food is a part of that, she says.

The plants were sown in the beginning of July, and they have grown well over the summer. Today, the vegetable garden consists of everything from root vegetables to legumes, berries, and edible flowers.

— Now we actually have a garden, and that was the goal, noted a pleased Wyller.

Volunteering spirit

Ryan Hamilton is also one of the initiators of the rooftop garden. Both him and Wyller are taking master’s degrees in Development, Environment, and Cultural Change. Hamilton wants to make the world a better place, and thinks that UiO is a good place to start.

— There are many productive ways to use the roofs of the different buildings. We can have a positive impact on the university, says Hamilton.

He’s glad the rooftop garden was realized and gives praise to all those who contributed to its creation:

— It is because of the volunteers who have been to every single volunteering session we’ve had. But we will also have events and activities, not just communal work, he says and laughs.

In addition to communal work, the rooftop garden will be a social place where you can meet people, eat good, self-grown food, and relax.

— It is open for all to just hang out here, says Wyller.

The rooftop garden is just the beginning of UiO Rooftop Initiative, the organisation has many plans for the future.

— We hope the project spreads. There are many other roofs at UiO you could do fun things with, said Wyller.