Tag: beefriendly

Categories
Ecology Ecoretrofit Encouraging wildlife and nature Green roofs Retrofit sustainability

Building a green roof in South London

I spent a few days building a new roof in South London. We used gabion cages filled with a mixture of large stones and logs to create habitat.

I also used a time lapse camera for the first time to try and capture building the roof. I have divided it into 3 sections, first the set up, including adding some insulation. We used gabion cages from Devoran metals for the edges https://devoran-metals.co.uk/

Edges and protective fleece in place

After this we added a drainage layer of aerated clay pebbles, these also add to the insulation and help to reduce overheating.

Drainage layer is added

I struggled a bit with the speeds and lapse times for the videos but slowly getting better. The next step for the roof was to top up the gabion cages and add the soil, we were using Shire substrates who supply an excellent green roof mix.

Soil goes on

Finally planting and seeding. I worked with Rotherview nurseries to get an excellent selection of plants that are growing well at this time of year, including several sedums, campanula and Armeria. We also added lots of wildflower seeds that will start to show their heads in spring or before.

Planting

Overall, we were pretty pleased with the roof as was the client. Looking forward to seeing it develop over the next few years.

Categories
Design Ecology Encouraging wildlife and nature Green roofs

Bike shed green roof in Dulwich

I like making green roofs but one problem with them is that I nearly always build on extensions and garden buildings at the back of houses so no one but the home owner gets to see it. Bike sheds are usually at the front of the house so they are on show to the world.

This one I built in Dulwich, London is for a client I built a sedum roof for last year. I persuaded them that this one would look nicer with a wider range of plants. I put in a selection of sedums including Sempervivum for long term coverage and then added herbs: creeping thyme, chamomile and rosemary. Then I added some saxifraga and a selection of plants that are flowering now for cover.

  • Green roof in Dulwich
  • Flowers growing in East Dulwich
  • Bike shed in East Dulwich
  • Japanese maple in the foreground
  • Growing like crazy
  • Sedum in the foreground
  • Growing well
  • Overhang
  • Flowers on a bike shed
  • Spreading over the whole roof
  • Some height but not too much
  • Responding well to the rain
  • Starting to spread
  • This will spread and replace the pansies when they die out

I think you will agree it looks fantastic now. If you want one for your bike shed get in touch. alex@ecoalex.com

Categories
Ecology Green roofs Projects Uncategorized Using less water

Marlow roof update

Some gorgeous pictures from the roof I built in Marlow last year including some priapic sedums!

Categories
Ecology Encouraging wildlife and nature Green roofs Projects sustainability

‘Spectacular’ green roof in Dulwich

Full extent of the roof

I built this one last week on a garden office in Dulwich. I don’t do so many sedum roofs but this did come up looking really nice and is instantly green.

The roof build up was using the Optigreen lightweight roof system. A protection fleece over the waterproofing, drainage layer, lightweight substrate and pregrown sedum on top. This was ideal for this garden office and really helped it blend in to the trees and plants at the bottom of the garden. The roof will drain into a gutter when complete (not that there will be a lot of runoff). I used aluminium edge trim all the way round to give it a nice defined edge.

The substrate was incredibly dry when it arrived, I initially thought it was just sand! This made it really easy to get up on to the roof, the bags weighed even less than usual. Luckily it has had a good soaking with the rain since to get it nice and wet.

Getting the sedum up on the roof was a little trickier, we left it out overnight and the client enthuisiastically watered it making it very heavy. After struggling with a couple of rolls I realised it was better to cut the mats in half to make them easier to handle.

Once it was all up it looked really good. I spoke to the client again the week after to check on it and he said ‘It looks absolutely stunning. The wife and my nearest neighbours really like it – so a big thankyou. I have been diligently watering it and it is looking good. Many thanks‘ very pleased with the feedback.