Saturday, February 5, 2011

Green Roof Expansion for Rabbits - Mat Down, Soil Time!

More photos soon - the mat is a Colbond mat - they have many - if you are planning on using a Colbond mat for an extensive Green Roof, send me an email and I'll share with you what has been tried, works good, works better and works best. :) 

The mat is taped to the tin roofing with double sided roofing tape and scrap copper pipe serves as the stop piece.

Going to use straight Suwanee River Organic Compost (wondering just really how organic it is...) and might put down a layer of oak leaves first.  Many people say organic matter is bad for green roofs because it prevents drainage and clogs up the downspouts.  Vogue now to use expanded clay or rock or large grained sand, pumice or perlite.  All of those items have a very high carbon footprint.  And the last laugh is - although the roofs are designed and constructed with less than 15% or so organic matter, the maintenance and landscape staff add volumes of slow release or fast release fertilizers to compensate for the lack of organic matter.  Then algae blooms very quickly and clogs up the drains and downspouts anyway. :)

I like to amend the home made compost or Suwanee River compost with coir (always treat your coir with Epsom salts first) and peat to lighten up the mixture.  Add some local sand too, just make sure it is not infected with nematodes.

A spring mix, ala permaculture, for the rabbits will be planted.  With the moon in the right phase now I am guessing the arugula et al will be sprouting in a couple days. 

Will post more photos then.

P.S. The system is set up to where the rabbit pellets fall down through a special -easy to walk on floor into the composting leaves below where the worm farm is.  Chickens are going down at the end of the ex-greenhouse - am designing a radius type green roof for the coop that is super lightweight and provides food too. :)

As always - email your comments and questions and Happy Green Roofing!

Kevin

Green Roof Rabbit Hutch

Green Roof expansion with Colbond Mat & Compost

Feed the Rabbits Off the Rooftop Permaculture Style!

No comments: