Efforts like these are truly inspirational and may hold the answer to feeding the world's future population.
Showing posts with label rooftop permaculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rooftop permaculture. Show all posts
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Intense Rooftop Aquaponics - Amazing Rooftop Garden!
Check out this impressive Rooftop Farm - Aquaponics - garden video. It is amazing just how much food is being grown within a small rooftop area!
Efforts like these are truly inspirational and may hold the answer to feeding the world's future population.
Efforts like these are truly inspirational and may hold the answer to feeding the world's future population.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Monday, August 27, 2012
Sloped Green Roofs & Hurricanes, Florida Urban Sustainability
Recently, one of the original field trial green roofs was temporarily removed to allow for installation of a solar hot water system piping. The roof's slope was approximately 7/12 and originally the lightweight extensive mat system was installed over the existing asphalt shingles (with a root barrier/waterproofing liner). The green roof system used a soil media comprised of primary organic mixtures, had a variety of sedum, succulents and native Allium species planted (A. canadense and others).
The sedum and original Aptenia struggled over time, eventually giving way to the A. canadense, primarily due to fungal attacks during the steamy hot, humid summer months (not necessarily rainy just high water vapor months).
Once removed the underlying roof appeared to look the same as the day the green roof was installed seven years ago, free of water damage and quite nicely preserved.
The green roof system was a simple.ost-effective system defying all odds and wagging-tongues - (don't use high organic soil media, the roof is too sloped, can't put a green roof over asphalt shingles, a nature-irrigated green roof will not survive, etc...). The system easily survived several tropical cyclones, one rainfall event where we had eighteen inches of water in over two days (Tropical Storm Fay), extended periods of brutal drought and more). The roof never had additional soil or plants added to it.
Once the solar piping was in place the intent was to add a recycled section of old, heavy duty chain link fence to the wall under the roof and plant and grow luffa gourds in the gutter, allowing them to cascade down over the guter edge across the chain link living wall fencing. I can hear the wagging tongues now - growing plants in gutter!
Importantly, over the years of watching the roof preform the plants adsorbed and drank most of the rainfall events - especially any rain less than one inch (most of our afternoon rainstorms here are les than one inch) rendering the gutter useless. The gutter was useless in the eighteen inch plus rainfall event too. Though I would not do this on a commercial application, we do push the limits at the nursery to see what systems can do. I am confident the green roof system we've replaced on the roof will handle any and all precipitation events, even with the luffa planted in the gutter, and just as the organic matter did not clog and wash out or decompose as predicted or the roof wash off during tropical cyclones, the luffa planted gutter - filled with a fast draining soil media will pleasantly surprise us.
The luffa is deciduous and will allow winter sun to hit our masonry walls, adding heat in the cooler months yet shading out summer solar radiation.
So with skyrocketing food prices in the grocery markets, a food based schema was designed for plantings. The original mat, removed during the solar renovation process was replaced, adhered using a low VOC roofing glue.
Once the mat was in place and inspected the soil media was added. This is the process where the greatest leap of faith occurs for me.
A leap of faith because placing soil on a quite steep roof surface seems to be a futile approach, one probably washing off during the first rain storm, covering outside walls with a muddy mess. Of course we watch the weather predictions as would any roofer and don't start if rain is predicted for a couple days.
The soil media is a fine material, free of aggregate - important when designing in a cyclone prone area. Our soil media specifications call for microscopic sharp, geometric edges capable of locking together and when roots are added to the blend a highly stable, well-drained monolithic system is created. The trick lies in initially adding fast growing C3 plants to bind all together then incorporating a purposeful evolution to a blend of more C4 and CAM plants to allow for drought tolerance and wind resilience.
Since I love Wild Cherry Tomatoes and cannot get enough of them I decided on Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes to accompany the luffa's. This wild breed produces more delicious cherry tomatoes than any other variety I have seen. I am expecting thousands and thousands of cherry tomatoes this year.
Cherry tomatoes are ramblers and will cascade down alongside the luffas, down the living wall so I won't have to actually climb the roof to fetch the round red scrumptious fruits.
Expect update photos as the luffa's and tomatoes grow and fill in the living wall, cascading down from above, providing us and countless hungry insects, birds and other Urban Jax Core wildlife with fresh organic nectar, food and beauty.
 |
| Florida Green Roof, MetroVerde Extensive Mat System |
The sedum and original Aptenia struggled over time, eventually giving way to the A. canadense, primarily due to fungal attacks during the steamy hot, humid summer months (not necessarily rainy just high water vapor months).
Once removed the underlying roof appeared to look the same as the day the green roof was installed seven years ago, free of water damage and quite nicely preserved.
The green roof system was a simple.ost-effective system defying all odds and wagging-tongues - (don't use high organic soil media, the roof is too sloped, can't put a green roof over asphalt shingles, a nature-irrigated green roof will not survive, etc...). The system easily survived several tropical cyclones, one rainfall event where we had eighteen inches of water in over two days (Tropical Storm Fay), extended periods of brutal drought and more). The roof never had additional soil or plants added to it.
Once the solar piping was in place the intent was to add a recycled section of old, heavy duty chain link fence to the wall under the roof and plant and grow luffa gourds in the gutter, allowing them to cascade down over the guter edge across the chain link living wall fencing. I can hear the wagging tongues now - growing plants in gutter!
 |
| Florida Green Roof, Luffa Gourds in Gutters |
Importantly, over the years of watching the roof preform the plants adsorbed and drank most of the rainfall events - especially any rain less than one inch (most of our afternoon rainstorms here are les than one inch) rendering the gutter useless. The gutter was useless in the eighteen inch plus rainfall event too. Though I would not do this on a commercial application, we do push the limits at the nursery to see what systems can do. I am confident the green roof system we've replaced on the roof will handle any and all precipitation events, even with the luffa planted in the gutter, and just as the organic matter did not clog and wash out or decompose as predicted or the roof wash off during tropical cyclones, the luffa planted gutter - filled with a fast draining soil media will pleasantly surprise us.
The luffa is deciduous and will allow winter sun to hit our masonry walls, adding heat in the cooler months yet shading out summer solar radiation.
So with skyrocketing food prices in the grocery markets, a food based schema was designed for plantings. The original mat, removed during the solar renovation process was replaced, adhered using a low VOC roofing glue.
 |
| Florida Extensive Green MetroVerde Green Roof, Mat installed |
 |
| Florida MetroVerde Extensive Green Roof Soil Media |
The soil media is a fine material, free of aggregate - important when designing in a cyclone prone area. Our soil media specifications call for microscopic sharp, geometric edges capable of locking together and when roots are added to the blend a highly stable, well-drained monolithic system is created. The trick lies in initially adding fast growing C3 plants to bind all together then incorporating a purposeful evolution to a blend of more C4 and CAM plants to allow for drought tolerance and wind resilience.
 |
| Florida Extensive Green Roof, Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes |
Since I love Wild Cherry Tomatoes and cannot get enough of them I decided on Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes to accompany the luffa's. This wild breed produces more delicious cherry tomatoes than any other variety I have seen. I am expecting thousands and thousands of cherry tomatoes this year.
 |
| Florida Green Roof, Food Roof, Rooftop Permaculture by MetroVerde |
Cherry tomatoes are ramblers and will cascade down alongside the luffas, down the living wall so I won't have to actually climb the roof to fetch the round red scrumptious fruits.
 |
| Florida Green Roof - Rooftop Permaculture |
Friday, August 24, 2012
Educational Outreach and Green Roofs, Students Planting Rooftop Gardens
Educational Outreach and Green Roof Permaculture in the Urban Core! Awesome work by Catherine Tappouni Burkee!
Friday, April 6, 2012
Rooftop Permaculture for Urban Core Food
Rooftop permaculture holds the key to feeding the cities.
Here are a couple lightweight rooftop vegetable growing panels.
Easy to grasp and pick up, 52mm thick and they clip together allowing for many designs and layout configurations.
The wheat grass will be thick in a couple days.
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| MV Wheat Grass Green Roof Modules |
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| MV Wheat Grass Green Roof Modules |
The next photo is of the MV rooftop veggie growing area.
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| Rooftop permaculture - Veggies grow better on the green roof! |
Garden soils here in Florida are widely inflicted with nematodes.
Nematodes burrow their way into a plant root, causing the root to swell into nodules and damaging the plant's vascular system - resulting in stunted plant growth and limiting produce production.
However the rooftop garden tends to stay nematode free. Solarized by the sun's rays, rooftop garden soil tends to stay free of many of the common plant issues found in ground level soil.
Industrial Agriculture is one of the most intense forms of land use. Machinery chops the soil and vegetation covering the ground, pulling up and discarding all native plant DNA. The soil is graded and tilled, plowed and fertilized. All traces of the original soil structure disappears. Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are soaked into the ground.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
We can reforest the farmlands, restore wetlands, recreate habitat and replant what we've destroyed.
We can use the millions of urban rooftop acres for green roof gardens. Rooftop permaculture. Feed the hungry. Feed the cities. Provide habitat. Reduce heat island effect.
Clean stormwater. Sequester Carbon and pump fresh oxygen into a stale atmosphere.
But we need to be smart about how we accomplish this.
Today on Twitter I read the pundits as they laughed about how Toronto was backing down from green roof legislation. The industrial lobby may have successfully convinced the city that green roofs are not cost-effective alternatives when compared to white TPO or single-ply reflective roofing materials.
So there will be two types of green roof initiatives in the future. One will grow stale and eventually disappear, relying on expensive, heavy planting systems and monocultures of non-native highly temperamental landscape plants.
The other will become dynamically organic in growth, seek out eco-friendly components and methods using ultra-light weight (less than 10 pounds per square foot) systems with nature-based or highly efficient recycled rainwater & micro-irrigation systems. Native plants for biodiversity contributions and ethnobotanicals such as food, fiber and medicine plants will flourish.
Expanded shale with it's huge carbon footprint will no longer be used for planting media. On site composting of organic material for the green roof will become the norm. Drainage technology advances will allow for this accommodation. Moreover, composting and reuse of organic matter conserves a rather large water footprint.
Mega-heavy, expensive green roofs will give way to the small commercial building and residential rooftop garden. Governmental efforts in the green roof arena will be overtaken by grassroots local initiatives and small rooftop gardens will appear throughout the neighborhoods, especially as food prices rise and the dangers of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers become known.
The potential is exciting.
We can feed the cities.
We can reforest our agriculture lands.
We can envision the urban core ripe with organically grown, open-pollinated rooftop gardens, supporting bees, insects, birds and wildlife.
Millions of acres of green roofs.
It begins with a rooftop wheat grass tray and small veggie garden.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Green Roof Gardening and Small Scale Rooftop Permaculture
Reprinted from Florida Permaculture Blog:
Rooftop permaculture may be the long term sustainable trend for green roofs. Where as green roofs may have many benefits, including insulation, mitigation of urban heat island effect, cleansing of stormwater, support for biodiversity, educational opportunities and more, growing food within the city can save food fuel and transportation costs, create permaculture benefits, cool structures, save money and provide much needed sustenance within inner cities.
With advances in green roof and permaculture technology, cost effective and lightweight growing systems can be created and installed for food production across balconies, patios, rooftops and windowsills.
Self watering and systems employing fog nets, dew catchers and condensate reuse will take the place of non-sustainable potable irrigation water.
Additionally, there is so much permaculture information available on the great world wide web the need for fertilizers can be easily replaced with proper and informed design principles utilizing nitrogen fixing plant species. Our rooftop tomatoes growing alongside legumes were so much larger than those in our ground level gardens.
Importantly here in Florida (and other places), rooftop gardening eliminates many of the soil borne plant root pests such as nematodes. Nematodes can devastate garden vegetables, stunting their growth by as much as a severe drought would. Nematodes generally cannot survive in the hot temperatures typical of green roof soil media.
Food plants such as those shown above, will have the advantage of first view by pollinators.
Your roof will become alive with butterflies, dragonflies, moths, birds, bees and more.
Tree frogs and anoles will soon take up residence, creating a wonderful integrated pest management systems as they eat volumes of the common household fly, mosquitoes, roaches and other pests.
Consider planting veggies on your roof as the next permaculture project.
Rooftop permaculture may be the long term sustainable trend for green roofs. Where as green roofs may have many benefits, including insulation, mitigation of urban heat island effect, cleansing of stormwater, support for biodiversity, educational opportunities and more, growing food within the city can save food fuel and transportation costs, create permaculture benefits, cool structures, save money and provide much needed sustenance within inner cities.
 |
| Florida Permaculture, Rooftop Gardens - Mustards & Garlic Chives |
With advances in green roof and permaculture technology, cost effective and lightweight growing systems can be created and installed for food production across balconies, patios, rooftops and windowsills.
Self watering and systems employing fog nets, dew catchers and condensate reuse will take the place of non-sustainable potable irrigation water.
 |
| Florida Permaculture, Greens and Garlic Chives on the Rooftop |
Additionally, there is so much permaculture information available on the great world wide web the need for fertilizers can be easily replaced with proper and informed design principles utilizing nitrogen fixing plant species. Our rooftop tomatoes growing alongside legumes were so much larger than those in our ground level gardens.
Importantly here in Florida (and other places), rooftop gardening eliminates many of the soil borne plant root pests such as nematodes. Nematodes can devastate garden vegetables, stunting their growth by as much as a severe drought would. Nematodes generally cannot survive in the hot temperatures typical of green roof soil media.
 |
| Florida Permaculture, Clover feeds the Greens on the Roof |
Food plants such as those shown above, will have the advantage of first view by pollinators.
Your roof will become alive with butterflies, dragonflies, moths, birds, bees and more.
Tree frogs and anoles will soon take up residence, creating a wonderful integrated pest management systems as they eat volumes of the common household fly, mosquitoes, roaches and other pests.
Consider planting veggies on your roof as the next permaculture project.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Florida Rooftop Permaculture, No Room for a Garden? No Problem
Rooftop permaculture may be the long term sustainable trend for green roofs. Where as green roofs may have many benefits, including insulation, mitigation of urban heat island effect, cleansing of stormwater, support for biodiversity, educational opportunities and more, growing food within the city can save food fuel and transportation costs, create permaculture benefits, cool structures, save money and provide much needed sustenance within inner cities.
With advances in green roof and permaculture technology, cost effective and lightweight growing systems can be created and installed for food production across balconies, patios, rooftops and windowsills.
Self watering and systems employing fog nets, dew catchers and condensate reuse will take the place of non-sustainable potable irrigation water.
Additionally, there is so much permaculture information available on the great world wide web the need for fertilizers can be easily replaced with proper and informed design principles utilizing nitrogen fixing plant species. Our rooftop tomatoes growing alongside legumes were so much larger than those in our ground level gardens.
Importantly here in Florida (and other places), rooftop gardening eliminates many of the soil borne plant root pests such as nematodes. Nematodes can devastate garden vegetables, stunting their growth by as much as a severe drought would. Nematodes generally cannot survive in the hot temperatures typical of green roof soil media.
Food plants such as those shown above, will have the advantage of first view by pollinators.
Your roof will become alive with butterflies, dragonflies, moths, birds, bees and more.
Tree frogs and anoles will soon take up residence, creating a wonderful integrated pest management systems as they eat volumes of the common household fly, mosquitoes, roaches and other pests.
Consider planting veggies on your roof as the next permaculture project.
|
| Florida Permaculture, Rooftop Gardens - Mustards & Garlic Chives |
With advances in green roof and permaculture technology, cost effective and lightweight growing systems can be created and installed for food production across balconies, patios, rooftops and windowsills.
Self watering and systems employing fog nets, dew catchers and condensate reuse will take the place of non-sustainable potable irrigation water.
|
| Florida Permaculture, Greens and Garlic Chives on the Rooftop |
Additionally, there is so much permaculture information available on the great world wide web the need for fertilizers can be easily replaced with proper and informed design principles utilizing nitrogen fixing plant species. Our rooftop tomatoes growing alongside legumes were so much larger than those in our ground level gardens.
Importantly here in Florida (and other places), rooftop gardening eliminates many of the soil borne plant root pests such as nematodes. Nematodes can devastate garden vegetables, stunting their growth by as much as a severe drought would. Nematodes generally cannot survive in the hot temperatures typical of green roof soil media.
|
| Florida Permaculture, Clover feeds the Greens on the Roof |
Food plants such as those shown above, will have the advantage of first view by pollinators.
Your roof will become alive with butterflies, dragonflies, moths, birds, bees and more.
Tree frogs and anoles will soon take up residence, creating a wonderful integrated pest management systems as they eat volumes of the common household fly, mosquitoes, roaches and other pests.
Consider planting veggies on your roof as the next permaculture project.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
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.
The green roof's soil media is really just composted leaves and about 2 cm of black gold soil from out kitchen compost barrel.
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Green Roofs support Food Freedom, Florida Rooftop Permaculture
Issues concerning the safety, quality, availability and cost of food are important considerations today, especially as corporations and state actors try to monopolize energy, water, transportation and other needed fundamental necessities for life.
Yet as generations pass, the knowledge and secrets of agriculture and permaculture are slipping away.
Articles such as the one found here where a Wisconsin judge ruled Americans do not have a fundamental right to keep livestock and grow food, illustrate the fear and worry of federal judges ruling against basic food rights.
As our Urban Core becomes more and more populated and our buildings higher and taller, we the residents will need to know how to grow food across structures.
Recently, my friends Val and Eli were cited by the City of Jacksonville for growing food in their front yard.
Mark and Amanda Searle have been both cited and fined for hens in their backyard. Others have had their egg producing pet hens taken in front of teary-eyed children.
Am I paranoid? Maybe so. But as corporate control and lobbyist-driven legislators becomes the norm, we should have a back up plan.
If the GMO turns out a generation of pain, or if seed and food becomes so expensive we cannot afford to feed our families, we must have an alternative.
Rooftop and windowsill permaculture provide an answer.
 |
| Green Roof Okra Seed Pod - Seeds - new currency |
Yet as generations pass, the knowledge and secrets of agriculture and permaculture are slipping away.
Articles such as the one found here where a Wisconsin judge ruled Americans do not have a fundamental right to keep livestock and grow food, illustrate the fear and worry of federal judges ruling against basic food rights.
As our Urban Core becomes more and more populated and our buildings higher and taller, we the residents will need to know how to grow food across structures.
Recently, my friends Val and Eli were cited by the City of Jacksonville for growing food in their front yard.
Mark and Amanda Searle have been both cited and fined for hens in their backyard. Others have had their egg producing pet hens taken in front of teary-eyed children.
Am I paranoid? Maybe so. But as corporate control and lobbyist-driven legislators becomes the norm, we should have a back up plan.
If the GMO turns out a generation of pain, or if seed and food becomes so expensive we cannot afford to feed our families, we must have an alternative.
Rooftop and windowsill permaculture provide an answer.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Green Roof Agriculture, easy to grow, even without a Green Thumb!
Growing food on rooftops and across Green Roofs is easy. Many times I've people say, "I can't grow any of my own food, I don't have a green thumb"! But it is the plants that do the growing! All you need to do is provide them with sunshine and a little water from time to time.
Rooftops are free from many pests, such as the infamous root-knot nematodes here in our sandy soils Green roof gardens easily reach for more than their fair share of sunshine!
In fact, to grow vegetables on the roof you really dont need alot of soil either! Think of plants growing in gutters. The above Roselle, a plant renown for tea and medicinal uses (I love to cook the leaves like greens) and the magnificent luffa sponge gourd are growing in less than two inches of soil.
Rooftops are the new frontier of agriculture!
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| Green Roof and Rooftop Permaculture Gardens can produce masses of food |
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| Green Roof Luffa and Roselle |
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| Green roof agriculture, Rooftop Okra |
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Rooftop Agriculture - the new frontier for Roofs & Green Roofs!
We are speaking for an audience in St, Johns County today about the virtues of rooftop permaculture.
I believe rooftops are the new frontier for Florida agriculture and the agriculture of the world. There are acres and acres of available growing spaces in the cities and Urban Core! Of course we will be forced to learn maximization practices and understand new constraints never before encountered in agriculture but the rewards are enormous! High value crops such as organic herbs, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, greens, spinach, beans, corn and more can be easily grown of the green roof and without much soil.
We believe a large portion of the new Gross Domestic Product will be organic, local food in the future as transportation costs increase, fuel is scarcer and poisons applied more and more to GMO based crops.
 |
| Green Roof Agriculture - Cherry Tomatoes, MetroVerde |
I believe rooftops are the new frontier for Florida agriculture and the agriculture of the world. There are acres and acres of available growing spaces in the cities and Urban Core! Of course we will be forced to learn maximization practices and understand new constraints never before encountered in agriculture but the rewards are enormous! High value crops such as organic herbs, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, greens, spinach, beans, corn and more can be easily grown of the green roof and without much soil.
We believe a large portion of the new Gross Domestic Product will be organic, local food in the future as transportation costs increase, fuel is scarcer and poisons applied more and more to GMO based crops.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
More Green Roof Temperature Comparisons
Daily trends are beginning to define themselves.
Asphalt shingles heat up very quickly during the day, much hotter than green roofs, then cool down much faster at night.
However, green roofs moderate daytime solar gain and do not heat the roof to the high temperatures seen on asphalt shingles. Green roofs really help keep roofs cool - and make a great place to grow vegetables!
Asphalt shingles heat up very quickly during the day, much hotter than green roofs, then cool down much faster at night.
However, green roofs moderate daytime solar gain and do not heat the roof to the high temperatures seen on asphalt shingles. Green roofs really help keep roofs cool - and make a great place to grow vegetables!
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| Green Roof Comparison Chart - Temperatures - Click to Enlarge |
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| Green Roof Mustards |
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Florida Green Roofs & Rooftop Permaculture in Arid and Cyclone Prone Areas
Recently, one of the original field trial green roofs was temporarily removed to allow for installation of a solar hot water system piping. The roof's slope was approximately 7/12 and originally the lightweight extensive mat system was installed over the existing asphalt shingles (with a root barrier/waterproofing liner). The green roof system used a soil media comprised of primary organic mixtures, had a variety of sedum, succulents and native Allium species planted (A. canadense and others).
The sedum and original Aptenia struggled over time, eventually giving way to the A. canadense, primarily due to fungal attacks during the steamy hot, humid summer months (not necessarily rainy just high water vapor months).
Once removed the underlying roof appeared to look the same as the day the green roof was installed seven years ago, free of water damage and quite nicely preserved.
The green roof system was a simple.ost-effective system defying all odds and wagging-tongues - (don't use high organic soil media, the roof is too sloped, can't put a green roof over asphalt shingles, a nature-irrigated green roof will not survive, etc...). The system easily survived several tropical cyclones, one rainfall event where we had eighteen inches of water in over two days (Tropical Storm Fay), extended periods of brutal drought and more). The roof never had additional soil or plants added to it.
Once the solar piping was in place the intent was to add a recycled section of old, heavy duty chain link fence to the wall under the roof and plant and grow luffa gourds in the gutter, allowing them to cascade down over the guter edge across the chain link living wall fencing. I can hear the wagging tongues now - growing plants in gutter!
Importantly, over the years of watching the roof preform the plants adsorbed and drank most of the rainfall events - especially any rain less than one inch (most of our afternoon rainstorms here are les than one inch) rendering the gutter useless. The gutter was useless in the eighteen inch plus rainfall event too. Though I would not do this on a commercial application, we do push the limits at the nursery to see what systems can do. I am confident the green roof system we've replaced on the roof will handle any and all precipitation events, even with the luffa planted in the gutter, and just as the organic matter did not clog and wash out or decompose as predicted or the roof wash off during tropical cyclones, the luffa planted gutter - filled with a fast draining soil media will pleasantly surprise us.
The luffa is deciduous and will allow winter sun to hit our masonry walls, adding heat in the cooler months yet shading out summer solar radiation.
So with skyrocketing food prices in the grocery markets, a food based schema was designed for plantings. The original mat, removed during the solar renovation process was replaced, adhered using a low VOC roofing glue.
Once the mat was in place and inspected the soil media was added. This is the process where the greatest leap of faith occurs for me.
A leap of faith because placing soil on a quite steep roof surface seems to be a futile approach, one probably washing off during the first rain storm, covering outside walls with a muddy mess. Of course we watch the weather predictions as would any roofer and don't start if rain is predicted for a couple days.
The soil media is a fine material, free of aggregate - important when designing in a cyclone prone area. Our soil media specifications call for microscopic sharp, geometric edges capable of locking together and when roots are added to the blend a highly stable, well-drained monolithic system is created. The trick lies in initially adding fast growing C3 plants to bind all together then incorporating a purposeful evolution to a blend of more C4 and CAM plants to allow for drought tolerance and wind resilience.
Since I love Wild Cherry Tomatoes and cannot get enough of them I decided on Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes to accompany the luffa's. This wild breed produces more delicious cherry tomatoes than any other variety I have seen. I am expecting thousands and thousands of cherry tomatoes this year.
Cherry tomatoes are ramblers and will cascade down alongside the luffas, down the living wall so I won't have to actually climb the roof to fetch the round red scrumptious fruits.
Expect update photos as the luffa's and tomatoes grow and fill in the living wall, cascading down from above, providing us and countless hungry insects, birds and other Urban Jax Core wildlife with fresh organic nectar, food and beauty.
I'll add a video clip of a hard rain too, to show how well the drainage actually works.
|
| Florida Green Roof, MetroVerde Extensive Mat System |
The sedum and original Aptenia struggled over time, eventually giving way to the A. canadense, primarily due to fungal attacks during the steamy hot, humid summer months (not necessarily rainy just high water vapor months).
Once removed the underlying roof appeared to look the same as the day the green roof was installed seven years ago, free of water damage and quite nicely preserved.
The green roof system was a simple.ost-effective system defying all odds and wagging-tongues - (don't use high organic soil media, the roof is too sloped, can't put a green roof over asphalt shingles, a nature-irrigated green roof will not survive, etc...). The system easily survived several tropical cyclones, one rainfall event where we had eighteen inches of water in over two days (Tropical Storm Fay), extended periods of brutal drought and more). The roof never had additional soil or plants added to it.
Once the solar piping was in place the intent was to add a recycled section of old, heavy duty chain link fence to the wall under the roof and plant and grow luffa gourds in the gutter, allowing them to cascade down over the guter edge across the chain link living wall fencing. I can hear the wagging tongues now - growing plants in gutter!
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| Florida Green Roof, Luffa Gourds in Gutters |
Importantly, over the years of watching the roof preform the plants adsorbed and drank most of the rainfall events - especially any rain less than one inch (most of our afternoon rainstorms here are les than one inch) rendering the gutter useless. The gutter was useless in the eighteen inch plus rainfall event too. Though I would not do this on a commercial application, we do push the limits at the nursery to see what systems can do. I am confident the green roof system we've replaced on the roof will handle any and all precipitation events, even with the luffa planted in the gutter, and just as the organic matter did not clog and wash out or decompose as predicted or the roof wash off during tropical cyclones, the luffa planted gutter - filled with a fast draining soil media will pleasantly surprise us.
The luffa is deciduous and will allow winter sun to hit our masonry walls, adding heat in the cooler months yet shading out summer solar radiation.
So with skyrocketing food prices in the grocery markets, a food based schema was designed for plantings. The original mat, removed during the solar renovation process was replaced, adhered using a low VOC roofing glue.
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| Florida Extensive Green MetroVerde Green Roof, Mat installed |
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| Florida MetroVerde Extensive Green Roof Soil Media |
The soil media is a fine material, free of aggregate - important when designing in a cyclone prone area. Our soil media specifications call for microscopic sharp, geometric edges capable of locking together and when roots are added to the blend a highly stable, well-drained monolithic system is created. The trick lies in initially adding fast growing C3 plants to bind all together then incorporating a purposeful evolution to a blend of more C4 and CAM plants to allow for drought tolerance and wind resilience.
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| Florida Extensive Green Roof, Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes |
Since I love Wild Cherry Tomatoes and cannot get enough of them I decided on Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes to accompany the luffa's. This wild breed produces more delicious cherry tomatoes than any other variety I have seen. I am expecting thousands and thousands of cherry tomatoes this year.
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| Florida Green Roof, Food Roof, Rooftop Permaculture by MetroVerde |
Cherry tomatoes are ramblers and will cascade down alongside the luffas, down the living wall so I won't have to actually climb the roof to fetch the round red scrumptious fruits.
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| Florida Green Roof - Rooftop Permaculture |
I'll add a video clip of a hard rain too, to show how well the drainage actually works.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Green Roofs and Permaculture
Growing food on rooftops is popular in many urban areas. New York may be leading the way, especially with projects like the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm.
We are working on a Jacksonville, Florida green roof with a significant rooftop permaculture component this spring.
Vegetables are already seeded and many sprouting. The Dinosaur Kale is about sixteen inches tall and the rocket arugula is growing well also.
We chose the roof area with the most morning sun and afternoon shade for the garden area as roof temperatures climb rapidly during the afternoon. Though many vegetables, such as the Brassicaceae are considered C4 photosynthesis processing plants and drought tolerant, morning sun and afternoon shade is best.
Here back in the green roof plant nursery we have recently adopted farm fowl on our urban one acre lot. With several chickens, ducks, geese and a turkey we've had to build enclosures to keep the neighborhood cats, raccoons and hawks from eating our birds.
This weekend we successfully constructed the $50.00 turkey enclosure. At 200 SF the price per square foot calculates to be approximately twenty five cents per SF - not bad!
The turkey castle is roofed with lemongrass, spinach, borage, onions, parsley, cucumbers, cantaloupe and cow peas.
The enclosure is made with simple farm posts, bent electrical conduit and wildlife - bird netting.
The soil media for the green roof is a very lightweight mix of perlite, vermiculite, sand and compost (compost about 50%). We'll keep the roof fertilized with turkey pellets.
And as our turkey appears to be a good flyer - I suspect he will be roosting often with the veggies.
Integrating vegetables, fruit and other items such as honey not only provides food for people but also habitat for wildlife. Increasing the plants insects need increases biodiversity. Pollinators are an important component of urban core gardening.
Rooftop permaculture - the new frontier for green roofs!
We are working on a Jacksonville, Florida green roof with a significant rooftop permaculture component this spring.
Vegetables are already seeded and many sprouting. The Dinosaur Kale is about sixteen inches tall and the rocket arugula is growing well also.
We chose the roof area with the most morning sun and afternoon shade for the garden area as roof temperatures climb rapidly during the afternoon. Though many vegetables, such as the Brassicaceae are considered C4 photosynthesis processing plants and drought tolerant, morning sun and afternoon shade is best.
Here back in the green roof plant nursery we have recently adopted farm fowl on our urban one acre lot. With several chickens, ducks, geese and a turkey we've had to build enclosures to keep the neighborhood cats, raccoons and hawks from eating our birds.
This weekend we successfully constructed the $50.00 turkey enclosure. At 200 SF the price per square foot calculates to be approximately twenty five cents per SF - not bad!
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| Green Roof Turkey House |
The turkey castle is roofed with lemongrass, spinach, borage, onions, parsley, cucumbers, cantaloupe and cow peas.
The enclosure is made with simple farm posts, bent electrical conduit and wildlife - bird netting.
The soil media for the green roof is a very lightweight mix of perlite, vermiculite, sand and compost (compost about 50%). We'll keep the roof fertilized with turkey pellets.
 |
| Green Roofs and Permaculture |
Integrating vegetables, fruit and other items such as honey not only provides food for people but also habitat for wildlife. Increasing the plants insects need increases biodiversity. Pollinators are an important component of urban core gardening.
Rooftop permaculture - the new frontier for green roofs!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Rooftop Permaculture - GMO, Brassica oleracea Root Architecture
"Gene manipulated corn fields feed people"
The above comment was a response this morning to one of my suggestions rooftop permaculture can help. It is really sad because some truly believe this.
Fortunately - like the present Middle East changing of the old, stale guard and influx of new ideas, I believe rooftop permaculture and vertical permaculture is well on its way to replacing the old and becoming the new frontier in volumetric and rooftop green.
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| Green Roof Rooftop Permaculture - Brassica |
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| Green Roof Vegetables - Broccoli |
The broccoli here were pulled from the roof garden this week. We had the Brassica growing in 4" of light weight highly organic composted and very well drained soil on a 4/10 slope. You can see just how the vegetables became with no additional fertilizers and zero pesticides and herbicides.
Unfortunately, large corporations view rooftop permaculture and the citizens taking the task of feeding themselves back into their own hands as a serious threat to profits.
But I reject the above statement that "Gene manipulated corn fields feed people" as the only successful approach.
Many people may want to eat GMO corn products. Yet I believe a large portion of the population may not want to.
So I see a grassroots movement arising to support rooftop permaculture, one where common people can make nutritional decisions for themselves rather than having the State or a Large Multi-national Corporation do so.
Check out just how big the Brassica grew. Look at the root architecture. We planted them close together to brace against wind issues and ate the greens daily. The plants adapted to the 4" soil (100mm) dispelling the myths of need for deep dirt to grow.
ECHO, see http://echonet.org is a great resource for rooftop permaculture practices, tips and design guidelines from a cost-effective approach.
Our $2.00 worth of seeds provided a daily bunch of organic greens and broccoli tops that would have cost US $ 5 in the store for six months. As I see it the numbers work out to be close to $1000 savings in food costs, not to mention the health benefits. That is just for organic broccoli alone. Add the collards, mustards, sugar snap peas, pok choy, turnips, potatoes, tomatoes and the benefit of fresh air and gardening companionship and one can easily see the economic advantage.
No thank you to GMOs and to the outdated, stale industry guru's that are old news.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Mustard Greens Taking Off on the Green Roof Rooftop Garden!
Photo this afternoon of the mustard greens and parsley growing on across the green roof foodpatch area.
Growing food on a roof is different than growing the food in the ground level garden. First of all the rooftop food garden's visitors are more visible. Pollinators and insects visit the flowers by the hundreds as the vegetables bloom.
Our rooftop garden seems to grow best during the cool and rainy seasons. However, hot weather veggies also do well but their photosynthetic processes move into such high speed during the long hot days with long sun exposure that they must be harvested regularly. Okra for instance, grows extremely fast and must be picked daily or the pods become too long and tough (stringy).
Think of the summer growing season on a roof as a garden in fast forward mode because of the generally unimpeded access to the suns rays for the Calvin cycle sugar production. Think of the summer rooftop garden as your own home-based oxygen generator and carbon sequestration unit.
Think of rooftop gardens as a way to feed the Urban Core.
Happy Green Roofing, Kevin
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| Mustard Greens and Parsley Growing on the Green Roof Food Patch |
Growing food on a roof is different than growing the food in the ground level garden. First of all the rooftop food garden's visitors are more visible. Pollinators and insects visit the flowers by the hundreds as the vegetables bloom.
Our rooftop garden seems to grow best during the cool and rainy seasons. However, hot weather veggies also do well but their photosynthetic processes move into such high speed during the long hot days with long sun exposure that they must be harvested regularly. Okra for instance, grows extremely fast and must be picked daily or the pods become too long and tough (stringy).
Think of the summer growing season on a roof as a garden in fast forward mode because of the generally unimpeded access to the suns rays for the Calvin cycle sugar production. Think of the summer rooftop garden as your own home-based oxygen generator and carbon sequestration unit.
Think of rooftop gardens as a way to feed the Urban Core.
Happy Green Roofing, Kevin
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