Lightweight Green Roofs and Rooftop Permaculture, Extreme Food

Here is a very short clip of an extremely (don't you love all the adverbs!) lightweight permaculture roof for growing wild cherry tomatoes.

The roof's structural elements are made from recycled plastic electrical conduit and used hog wire fencing, fastened together with twine.

A twice used, worn out tarp is then over laid onto the hog wire.

MetroVerde: Green Roof for Rooftop Permaculture, Very Lightweight

The green roof's soil media is really just composted leaves and about 2 cm of black gold soil from out kitchen compost barrel.

MetroVerde: Green Roof Permaculture Frame

I estimated the entire structure probably weights about three pounds per square foot.

The beauty of the venture is that one realizes rooftop permaculture and green roofs do not have to be expensive or complicated.

The saw palmetto, Serenoa repens, fronds provides amazing waterproof siding for just the labor required to scavenge and tie together with jute.

Creative rooftop permaculture and green roofs have their place in many places of the world.  Though they probably would not be allowed in many of the snooty Home Owners Association neighborhoods (I just feel sorry for all those who bought into the HOA thing and now are so far underwater on their mortgages), lightweight green roofs and food growing systems do have a place where hunger is a daily issue, here in America and across the world.

So for all those who live in cramped quarters or downtown in an Urban Core apartment, find a roof area, balcony, fire escape or porch.  We grew several hundred pounds of delicious cherry tomatoes on this roof last year and fed them to ourselves, the turkey, geese and hens.

Be creative.  Green Roofs do not have to be expensive, or require massive concrete and steel beams to support.

Growing Food on Roofs - Rooftop Permaculture Can Help Feed the Urban Core

Green Roof Mat with Swale Pads For Food Growing - Roof Permaculture

Growing food on the roof makes sense.  With hundreds of thousands of acres of otherwise wasted space available for planting in the Urban Core, city dwellers are now more than ever planting their rooftop spaces to help offset high food prices.

The rooftop permaculture systems we work with generally employ some type of three dimensional weave to allow plant roofs the chance for anchoring.  These are the same systems we just successfully tested in the hurricane simulators - where, once installed the plants and soils stay embedded in the mats under 120 mph winds.

Soil embedded three dimensional netting, though not essential, is important in sub tropical climates influenced each summer by cyclones and hurricanes, helping hold both soil and plants in place.  The weave also allows for steeply sloped rooftop areas to be taken advantage of for agricultural purposes.

Green Roof Mat & Soil Added For Food Growing - Roof Permaculture

Low cost and organic alternatives to the polypropylene weave include hemp and burlap fabric, fowl or hail netting, twine weave and any other system allowing inter-connectivity of plant roots to underlying roofing systems.

Importantly, growing food on the roof creates economic opportunity.  Many small cafes and restaurants will purchase locally grown organic produce.  Moreover, rooftop gardens  reduce heat island effect, produce oxygen and sequester carbon, provide habitat and offer many other benefits.

One of the first suggestions a friend offered was to take the multi-dimensional mat and fold it under in certain areas, creating a swale-like structure - a technique successfully used in permaculture practices, one with a focus on water efficiency maximization.

Judy's Spring Mix Ready for Green Roof Planting

The folds were added after the fact because the mat had already been installed.

A lightweight roof soil mix was added to the mat and seedlings Judy had grown - a spring mix - were planted.

Growing food on roofs and walls in the Urban Core opens many economic, ecological and social doors.  Elimination of food transportation costs can even help reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Green Roof Food Garden - Roof Permaculture