Over the weekend of 13th/14th a series of four green roofs designed for biodiversity were installed on a series of buildings at King Alfred’s School in Golders Green.
The roofs were installed using the methods and practices as outlined in John Little and Dusty Gedge’s e-guide on Small Scale Green Roof Construction. The school is also where Dr. G. Kadas, a leading researcher on green roofs and biodiversity, sends her son to school. The school has a number of bee hives and creating green roof habitats at roof level will provide the bees with extra forage habitat.
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The first work done a a few weeks before the installation was to assess the structural capacity. An engineer confirmed what loads were able to be placed on the roofs. Then the existing waterproofing was covered with a Hertalan epdm membrane to ensure that the roofs would not leak. this was installed by one of Hertalan’s leading installers, Richard Storey, a good friend of Greenrooftraining Ltd.
The green roofs used several different green roof substrates, provided by Shire Minerals Southern at varying depths. This allows the widest range of plants to ultimately flourish on the roof throughout the spring, summer and early autumn. This is important as research shows that merely using sedums only provides forage during June and July. For information on this research go to bee and green roof research.
The plants used on the roof included a variety of wildflower plugs sourced from British Wild Plants, including Lotus corniculatus, Centrathus ruber and Dianthus deltoides. Sedum species were also planted including Sedum spathulifolium capablanca/pupireum and Sedum album. Other plants included Delosperma coopery, Allium schoenoprasum, Muscari armeniacum and both Tulip and Crocus bulbs.
The roofs also include a series of wood piles – these will be important refuges for rare bugs, beetles and other invertebrates as the roof becomes colonised by the fauna associated with good green roofs designed for biodiversity.
Keep an eye out for future posts, with photographs of how the roof develops.
Your green roof pics are absolutely amazing. I like your collection. Its very difficult to install green roof for first time. But however thanks for sharing such a nice collection of pics.
Liquid Roof
Thanks for the compliments. Installed hundreds over the years.
A lot more stuff on http://www.livingroofs.org
Dusty Gedge
[...] installed the green roof on the King Alfred School roofs back in late March. Three months on the roofs is developing into a lovely species rich green roof. On installation the [...]