What to Consider When Picking Green Roof Plantings
Green Roof June 29, 2009
Today’s tip is about considerations when selecting the plantings for a green roof. The two types of green roofs – extensive and intensive – have different requirements when it comes to the structure of the facility, planting medium, and below-plant layers. But the same piece of advice regarding types of plantings applies to both: Use plants that are as self-sustaining as possible. That means that it’s almost always best to use plants that don’t need as little supplemental irrigation as is necessary to keep the plants alive. In other words, use plants that can survive on their own with natural rainfall.
Green roofs are almost always either part of new construction, or part of larger renovation projects. This means there are often lots to think about, and sometimes a green roof product or design is selected without any thought given to its maintenance requirements or the cost of supplemental irrigation water. An important facet of this is that if plants aren’t watered regularly and dry out, they can become more of a fire hazard. It’s important to have these risk management conversations early on in the design process.
Some experts suggest that the most maintenance a green roof should need is going up once a year to do a routine weeding. Put as much time into planning the landscape of your garden roof as you would in planning the landscape around your building. The operations and maintenance cost implications may be similar!
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