Green Roof Revival

The Spring season has brought us many welcomed changes: sunshine, warm breezes, and much needed rain. Along with these has come the amazing revival of our green roof. After long months of hibernation, the sedums are rapidly filling in. I have to admit, I was somewhat skeptical all winter as to whether the tiny plants would survive the harsh season. Well, as you can see in the side-by-side images below, the tiny plants aren't so tiny anymore.

































The images (above left) show the plugs just after installation- each was about 1-3" tall. They grew a bit in the fall, but the bulk of the growth has happened in the last couple of months. While each plug has grown in height, they have also grown tremendously in width, shooting off multiple stems from each plant (above right).

With the spring showers, there has really been no need for watering. Depending on how dry our Philly summer is this year, we may need to supplement with additional water to ensure that the plants are fully established. Since this will be their first summer, we want to make sure they're strong enough to survive the heat. After the plants are fully established, no additional watering will be necessary. Sedum plants are classified as "succulents" because they hold water in their leaves and are drought-tolerant.












JIG (our green roof installers) had initially estimated that it would take roughly two growing seasons to fill in and create a continuous "carpet" of plants and it seems we are well on our way to accomplishing that. The type of green roof we installed is a Type II: Aromatic Garden by Roofscapes, Inc (the Philadelphia-based green roof engineering firm founded by Charlie Miller). JIG is the certified local installer of Roofscapes green roof systems. You can read more about our green roof installation in our previous post from last September.

Needless to say, as we rapidly approach the completion of work on the home's interior, we are thoroughly enjoying our lunch break spot up on the deck.

Below you can see the recently installed steel support posts and railing (courtesy of our trusty steel fabricator, Bill Curran) that surround the roof deck. The final step will be to install the galvanized aircraft cable that spans in between the posts.