GREEN ROOFS

The National Green Roof Conference is taking place in Sheffield next week (see 'links' for more information) and as a bit of education and publicity Groundwork (see 'links' for more information) were out at the top Fargate on Saturday with a shed with a sedum roof. They were so keen to show it to everyone that they had to get up at 6am to be here in time.


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Wendy from Groundwork Sheffield was showing people the sedum mat that the plants grow in (its like turf but with sedum plants), which is then put on the roof or you can grow it from scratch. A waterproof layer is used to keep your building dry and stop it rotting and then if it is flat all you need is some foam/spongy stuff that holds some water and the crushed brick/gravelly stuff that the plants grow in (a bit like alpines in a rockery). You then sow lots of little tiny sedum plants by sprinkling them on the damp surface and they root and hey presto! The sedum plants are the magic bit as they are very good at drinking lots of water when it rains and then being able to keep going when it is hot and dry and everything else dies.

If your roof slopes then you have to use some eggbox things to hold to crushed gravelly growing medium so it doesn't just fall off.

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Fergus on the left is from Groundwork Sheffield and Wendy is by the table. They are keen to encourage us all to install green roofs on our sheds and garages and to provide as much green space as we can because it all helps. We must say that even though it was a red hot day and the plants had all been packed together for their journey they soon perked up and were looking wonderful. We are both looking forward to going along with Cath to the green roof conference next week and meeting the most important green roof people in the world. On day three of the conference Cath is showing folks the roof at Norfolk Community Primary School that was finished 2 years ago. Perhaps in a couple of years all those important people will want to come and see our special roof, that would be really great!