Waterscapes played a significant role in this iconic garden by designing and installing landscape irrigation and misting systems for the enclosed roof gardens and park located on Level 35 of the renowned 'Walkie-talkie' building.

Additionally, the irrigation expertise extended to the ground floor landscape planters, ensuring that the greenery thrives throughout the Sky Garden, making it a truly captivating living oasis in the heart of London.

Technical Details

Irrigation system

Automatic drip irrigation runs across the planting and trees on Level 35 and at ground level. Drip line feeds the shrubs and ground cover in the planting beds. Mature trees are watered through necklaces with push-in emitters. The full system is controlled by a Rain Bird ESP-LXD decoder-based two-wire system.

Misting system

Sub-tropical planting needs humid air to thrive in an enclosed space, so we installed a misting system controlled by a JD Ultrasonics E1012-HMI controller. Sensors in the garden measure humidity and trigger the misters when levels drop below the set point. Water for the misters passes through a reverse osmosis (RO) system before reaching the nozzles, which keeps the mist mineral-free and protects the surrounding finishes from deposit.

Water source

Irrigation water is a careful blend of raw mains, softened and RO water, mixed in the building’s plant room to suit the planting types in the scheme. Flow rates for the blended supply are monitored from the plant room to keep the mix consistent and the shared supply stable across both irrigation and misting demand.

Results & Outcomes

Sky Garden has operated as a public-access garden on Level 35 since 2015. The combined irrigation and misting system supports sub-tropical planting in an enclosed rooftop environment year-round, with humidity control responding to live conditions in the space rather than running on a fixed schedule. Waterscapes continues to maintain the main plant items, with the building’s facilities team handling routine water-quality monitoring and Waterscapes managing the annual drain, clean and chlorination across the system.