Roof Top-Up

Just a quick update:

A few weeks ago I topped up the roof with another ½-to-1 inch of growing media (i.e. “dirt”). There were some areas that were pretty bare, mostly due to last year’s harsh winter, and also those areas of the panels were thinner when installed. I mixed in a helping of pelletized fertilized (sheep poop), and gave it all a good soaking afterwards.

The roof had another month of good weather before last night’s snow fall, so some of the sedum had already “poked out” of the new media. I also planted some leftovers from another green roof project — some sedum, but also some sempervivum (“hens and chicks”) native allium, and even a few ears of prickly pear cactus. We’ll see how that does come spring!

I plan on letting the roof regrow through the new depth of media all next season, and then repeating the process with another inch or so of media. This will give me a total of 3 to 4 inches of soil depth — plenty deep to really support the plants over the long term. I can then also try out some other species: notably penstemon, which I love, and maybe some wild grasses and wildflowers.

I also took the opportunity to realign the drip irrigation so the drip lines ran parallel to the roof slope. This allows more water to stay on the roof and saturate the soil when I need to water it, before it starts dripping off the bottom edge.

More news soon … another magazine article is in the works!