WICHITA, Kan. — More than a decade after people first moved into the lofts at Grant Telegraph in Old Town, their rooftop gardens are starting to draw eyes upward to leafy lushness.
“A lot of times when I’m in the store people will look up and say, ‘Do you know who lives in there?’” said Robyn Wells, who then tells them that she does. She owns the Uniquities Home store just south of the Grant Telegraph building where she and her family live.
Grant Telegraph’s gardens are visible to the north. Even as the drying winds of late summer take their toll, the high-rise oases offer a glimpse of green coolness above the steamy streets.
What’s making the gardens really pop this year is some maturity on plants that can withstand the harsh environment on the heights, residents say.
“What’s happened is after 10 years we finally found out what works in that environment, because on our deck we don’t get any shade,” D.J. Burk said. She lives in the penthouse of the Grant Telegraph with her husband, Old Town developer Dave Burk, where the climate is “just total sun, total wind, and in wintertime it’s even colder on our deck because the wind comes up from below, so all of my pots get very, very cold.”
The one type of plant the Burks have found that works: native grasses.
“I started planting grasses a couple years ago, and some of my grasses have gotten more mature, and we’ve been adding more and more every year,” D.J. Burk said. “If they live on our deck they’ll live anywhere in Kansas. Whenever they winter over and come back stronger, boy, those are the ones I keep trying.” The birds like them, too, she said.
Just below the Burks’ garden in the Grant Telegraph and just to the east, the two-level garden of Dave and Robyn Wells adds to the high-profile view. This is the second summer that the Wellses have lived in their loft, and being slightly lower and therefore more sheltered has allowed them to grow something that D.J. Burk hasn’t: trees.
The maturing impact of the loft gardens — you can get a good view of them to the northwest from the corner of Douglas and Washington — reflects the continuing revitalization of downtown Wichita, both in terms of businesses and residences.
But while much plant life is apparent from the street, the leafy bowers hide much as well: a two-story fireplace, a three-tiered fountain, a pergola over a hot tub on a deck, a weatherized big-screen TV, tables, sitting areas, even a patch of artificial turf where the Wellses’ two miniature Shih Tzus are trained to do their business.
It’s a rare perch that puts Robyn and Dave Wells 4 1/2 stories above Rock Island on a balcony that they built over their terrace to give them even more height. They call it the crow’s nest, and it puts them almost as high as the Burks’ penthouse garden. The tops of the trees on the street brush the bottom of the balcony as the Wellses look down on the Old Town Farm & Art Market over a window box of pink and yellow portulaca.
“We sit up here and have a glass of wine,” Robyn Wells said. “We’ll see people point up. They probably see us.”
The Wellses had to have all the large outdoor structures and the trees brought in by crane, along with a dining room table that was too big for the freight elevator that serves the lofts.
The trees — in large pots — range from evergreen cedars and spruces to a crabapple and even an apricot tree that came from Dave Wells’ great-great-grandmother’s place. Shrubs provide another level of plant height, and Boston ivy climbs every surface and ties the entire space together with threads of green.
Nothing exactly thrives at this height at the height of summer, after the beatings of the hot winds, but only a boxwood has turned completely brown and awaits removal. Earlier in the season, all of the plant life was lush and deeply colored, Robyn Wells said.
The Wellses and Burks water their plants with automatic drip irrigation. The Burks have recently added a pergola that gives the garden a weightier appearance and casts some slight shade. Both gardens rely on portulaca and Wave and other types of petunias to provide heat-proof summer color.
But apart from the annuals, which would die in winter in any garden, the plants must be able to take the elements year-round.
“It’s just been trial and error,” D.J. Burk said, “just figuring out what size of pot, what kind of plant, how often to water, because in our case we can’t take the pots in, so they have just to stay outside all the time.
“One thing I did learn from this trial and error: All of my pots are double-walled, heavy-duty plastic pots. So you have a little bit of air in between. Clay would crack in the winter. And then I water, not all winter, but whenever we have nice days.”
“My worst disaster was I really wanted trees. You see rooftop gardens in big cities, and you see those trees. We tried, we had great big pots, and I even hired some people to plant them professionally. They were doing pretty well; I think they made it one whole year. It seems like we were out of town. A wind storm caught the trees, and pulled out the drip,” and the trees died. “I need to stick to things that don’t get too tall.”
Soon, the weather will cool and find the Wellses still enjoying the rooftop, turning on the fireplace for warmth.
“In the fall it’s wonderful,” Robyn said. “We turn on the TV and watch it right here.”
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