The Grass Roof Company been building green roofs in SW Essex for over 15 years. Both owners now have houses with green roofs. This one is a recent adition to the family of green roofs dotted across North and East London and Essex.
Design and Installation The Grass Roof Company
Waterproofing: Hertalan UK
Native Wildflowers: British Wildflowers
Native seeds: Emorsgate Ltd
Subsrate: Shire Mineral Southern
Installed March 2010
Little House from dustygedge on Vimeo.
The Grass Roof Company been building green roofs in SW Essex for over 15 years. Both owners now have houses with green roofs. This one is a recent adition to the family of green roofs dotted across North and East London and Essex.
Constructed without a drainage layer, using just a geotextile fleece as protetion and moisture blanket the roof is constructed using the principles outlined in the ever popular DIY e-guide . Built during 2009 and 2010 the roof is split in two.
The northern green roof section, smaller of the two roofs, has been planted and seeded with a variety of wildflower plugs and wildflower seeds (including annuals). The substrate has a maximum depth of 200mm and a minimum of 100. This provides topographic variety allowing a greater range of wildflowers to become established. The northern section also has a series of log piles to add variety and provide nesting habitat for invertebrates. An interesting feature is the hollowed out apple log that has been placed around a pipe to disguish the 'unnatural' feature. The roof has a number of interesting species of plants , including chives, thyme, flax, annuals and Kidney vetch to provide nectar for pollinators, such as bumblebees, solitary and mining bees and butterflies. It is hoped that the roof will be visited by both of the rare Bombus species - Bombus sylvarum and humils - that are prevalent in the south Essex region on brownfield sites.
The south facing green roof overlooks a large meadow and has been planted with a grass mix. This aims to blend the imposing building into the surrounding landscape.
The roof is now in it's second year and due to the drought conditions in the UK has been irrigated a few times.
