The Magic of Green Roofs
It has been three years since we planted the green roof for our new house with wildflower plug plants, which has turned out to be a fabulous success. For many, "green roof" is synonymous with "sedum roof", 
we started off by colour bombing it with annuals while the slower growing perennials developed.
This sense of progression and change - like a wildflower meadow - is part of its fascination. Fortunately I can see it from my office window on the first floor! Its colours change through the season and species come and go depending on the weather. It's much past its best now, but still lovely.
Green Roof in 2014Also like a wildflower meadow, the roof serves as a wonderful habitat for all sorts of invertebrates and birds as well. Our wagtails love it, and we see different finches on it regularly too. Fingers crossed we might even have something nest on it next year!
Conditions on the roof are almost opposite to the wet clay hereabouts, so we can create diversity as well as a very different look with it. Wild Thyme and Scabious (pictured) do very well on it, for example, which we would never see normally here. There are some areas where the growing substrate is evidently more fertile than in others and the moisture retention in the substrate also varies, which gives diversity to the flora and flora within the roof too. Some areas still have a lot of bare earth, whereas others have almost tussocky grass.
It can be pretty hostile for the plants on the roof, which means I don't need to do much more than weed it a couple of times a year. Things don't grow to great size, and annual weeds generally don't survive at all. In the first year I watered it a couple of times but now I don't bother. I've just sown some Yellow Rattle this year to keep the grasses down a bit in some sections, too. What's not to like?
we started off by colour bombing it with annuals while the slower growing perennials developed.
This sense of progression and change - like a wildflower meadow - is part of its fascination. Fortunately I can see it from my office window on the first floor! Its colours change through the season and species come and go depending on the weather. It's much past its best now, but still lovely.
Green Roof in 2014Conditions on the roof are almost opposite to the wet clay hereabouts, so we can create diversity as well as a very different look with it. Wild Thyme and Scabious (pictured) do very well on it, for example, which we would never see normally here. There are some areas where the growing substrate is evidently more fertile than in others and the moisture retention in the substrate also varies, which gives diversity to the flora and flora within the roof too. Some areas still have a lot of bare earth, whereas others have almost tussocky grass.
It can be pretty hostile for the plants on the roof, which means I don't need to do much more than weed it a couple of times a year. Things don't grow to great size, and annual weeds generally don't survive at all. In the first year I watered it a couple of times but now I don't bother. I've just sown some Yellow Rattle this year to keep the grasses down a bit in some sections, too. What's not to like?