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Re: Living Roofs

We have been considering green roofs in the Des Moines area because of the proposal to use this technology on the new DSM Public Library. In the course of researching them, I purchased a book by Theodore Osmundson, FASLA, who trained at Iowa State and went on to design roof gardens/green roofs in the SF Bay area, and elsewhere. His book contains enough international technical information to get one started, and is nicely supplemented by some information on the web from Linda Velasquez at <http://www.greenroofs.com>. Linda came to DSM last Fall to hold a workshop on the topic which was very well attended. She is a recognized architect in the area.

You might also check out the Canadian website <http://www.peck.ca/grhcc/GRIM-Fall2002.pdf> for the Green Roof Infrastructure Monitor, from Canada.

There is, as usual, an explosion of information on the internet. You could also check out
<http://www.communityresources.org/greenroof.html> .

A quick google search with a fast connection turns up a lot of good stuff that I haven't seen before.

Many of the green roofs do not use the native plants, as I would prefer, but rather a mat of low-growing sedums and others. I should think that buffalo grass would be an excellent low-growing grass for this use, but whether the Iowa native grasses would handle it is something I have not seen considered.

Pasque flower strikes me as an intriguing possibility, as well. the roof would be gorgeous in the spring.

Eileen

James Trager wrote:

Interesting idea, Nikki. I've heard a little about the roofs of the prairie
settlers' sod huts. Rather leaky and buggy, those. Seems to me a more modern
version could avert those problems, but would be quite heavy. I look forward
to other contributions on the subject...

James C. Trager
Shaw Nature Reserve
Gray Summit MO

-----Original Message-----
From: Nikki Simmons [n*@mid-mo.net]
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 2:41 PM
To: prairie@hort.net
Subject: Living Roofs


Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience with living roofs?  I am building my pottery
studio this spring and am looking at doing a native planting on the rooftop.
Would love to hear from anyone, especially if you can point me to some
resources book, people, or otherwise.

Nikki Simmons
Russellville, MO

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