Re: Roof Gardens/Green Roofs

**"bbmackey" b*@prodigy.net**

I was on the GWA "long" tour on Tuesday and, as Kirk Brown says, it was one
of the most interesting ever.

The Green Roof concept has great potential as a way to cool buildings and
the city as a whole, by reflecting heat. Drought-tolerant succulents made
the best green roof plantings. Principles of rock garden design and trough
planting could relate well to green roofs. On a fenced, walkable roof, you
can have a highly esthetic garden that multi-tasks as a recreation area and
as a green roof, if you keep the weight of the planting medium, furnishings,
rocks (volcanic featherock would be good), and plants to a minimum.

There was a striking demonstration of the use of solar collectors at the
Chicago Center for Green Technology. Not only were solar panels aligned in
rows on the roof, they were used as awnings over all the windows,
individually. It looked like quite a solar harvest, all together.

It was great to meet so many GWL people at the Cave Bar event (thanks, Lon
and Doreen) and at the GWA activities. I hope to see you all again at the
annual meeting next year, on Long Island.

Also, relating to Sandie Parrott's question, yes, I am still willing to send
review copies of the trough book (published in 1999) to book reviewers.

Betty Mackey
B. B. Mackey Books      www.mackeybooks.com
P. O. Box 475
Wayne, PA 19087  USA
bbmackey@prodigy.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Garden Design, Inc
If you took the "long" tour on Tuesday you had the opportunity to tour at
least one additional site:  The Chicago Center for Green Technology.  This
is a building that was constructed under the "Green Homes for Chicago"
program (and a whole host of other national/state/local programs as well!)
The green roof that was used in this construction was typical of the type:
low water need, high water retention and no irrigation.  It was flat.

The mayor's roof was only on half of the city hall building.  The county
side of the roof was not done.  Since it is very early in the roof's history
they haven't published any of the details.  However, apocryphal observation
has the county-side black roof averaging 165 degrees and the city-side,
green roof averaging about 92 degrees!  Amazing, isn't it?

However, here are the major differences:
    1.  The city roof has been mounded up to create hillocks and thus
increase the surface area.
    2.  It is irrigated (I thought that was a real compromise.)
    3.  This year they salted with a sprinkling of annual seeds and actually
planted some container annuals:  Lantana was one of the obvious ones.
    4.  They planted two trees and a large quantity of prairie grasses that
our guide admitted required more water than the traditional "green" roof
would allow for plants.
    5.  Because of the large amount of paving and other hardscape surfaces
and the apparent absence of any collection resevoirs, I don't know and
didn't ask if they have substantially reduced the amount of runoff that the
building produces.  Maybe those figures haven't been studied yet anyway.

And in response to Jeff's observation:  I have always gone on the Tuesday
tours--wherever they are going.  I've always signed on for the longest tour
of the day.  So far, I have not been disappointed.  They always rank among
the most thrilling and surprising of the symposium.  In fact, last year's to
Snohomish I would rank as one of my all-time favorite day-long experiences.
If you go to the Symposium, never--ever miss the Tuesday tours.  As Jeff
said, they're usually the committee member's favorite sites.

Lastly, good to see you all.  Thanks to Doreen again for a great
get-together in the Cave Bar....

Kirk R. Brown
Joanne Kostecky Garden Design, Inc
4905 Hamilton Boulevard
Allentown, PA  18106
610-530-8752
gardendesign@enter.net

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