A shed green roof enters it second spring in Ridgefield, Washington State, USA. Originally built in 2016 I was lucky enough to visit during the construction in October of that year.
What soil and what plants for a shed green roof in Washington State
In the absence of a good green roof substrate supplier, a bespoke soil was created from local materials Firstly, Norman visited a local quarry to obtain some quarry waste. The bespoke growing’s final ingredients consisted of some poor soil and shredded straw. .
The bespoke growing media
Washington State, like most of the North West suffers from very wet winters and also extreme heat in summer. Therefore Selecting the right plants were important. With a little help from semi-pro botanist friend the roofs was planted using local and regional plants.
The green roof shed in 2017
Wild strawberry, local foxglove and campion were sourced and planted. A few sedums were also added to the planting mix along with local reed grass.
‘Local wild strawberry has been planted at the bottom (most tolerant of the wet winters) with dwarf iris and local sedums. Finally local foxgloves and campion were planted at the top. We also planted some local reed grasses. All were sourced from the property’
Spring hits the roof – 2018
A few weeks ago an email arrived from Norman with the latest pictures and thoughts on his shed green roof:
Spring 2018
It is Spring here at last. So our roof is getting it’s Spring on. The iris are a dwarf iris collected from a garden in Joseph, Oregon. They are just the right scale for this project. The regionally collected sedums are taking off and spreading. Near the gabion end, the wild strawberry are waking up and the native campion and foxglove are reviving as well.We have two clumps of a local wire grass that are coming back after last summer’s baking heat. The local corkscrew grasses we tried were a fail. We will try them again this year and likely throw a few California poppy seeds out and see what happens.
We are looking forward to hearing more from Norman as spring turns to summer.
If you want to build a green roof on a shed or other small-scale building why not join the community.
