Run Out Of Space - Then Go To The Roofs....

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Have you run out of space in your garden for more flowers or vegetables. I have , as my garden is only 40ft x 16ft. It is split into 4 beds with a path way between them. One contains a pond, one is the vegetable patch and the other two are full of trees and flowers. The only way for me to go was to create a Living Roof on my shed , which is 6ft x 6ft.

Taking advise from the article on domestic green roofs I strengthened the roof and the sides of my shed . I was quite lucky in doing this as there was a 2 inch gap underneath the roof which allowed me to slot the supporting timber into.

The next step was to cover the shed with a waterproof membrane, I used a sheet of pond liner to do this. The edging was then added, with the end where the rain water would drain off from having holes drilled into it. I used the wood that I made my raised bed from as this has already been treated and was the right width for what I wanted to do. The excess wood is enough to make another bird box, or I will probably make an insect house this time. It is essentially the same thing, you just leave the front off and add either hollow dried stems of plants, bamboo or bark into the space. Insects like bees, lacewings and ladybirds will love it.

To aid in drainage and to protect the pond liner I then added a fleece. This covered the drainage holes and I added gravel to ensure the hole do not become blocked with the soil. The soil was then added on top of the fleece, which covered the whole of the roof. In total I added 3 x 75 litre bags of compost which gave me a depth of 4 inches, which I purchased from my local nursery together with a selection of alpine plants.

The whole process took me around two days to complete as I had to construct it around my shifts at work. This is the view of the shed and the living roof from my living room window. I'm quite lucky in that respect as I live in a 3 storey house, with the living room on the second floor looking out onto the garden. You can see to the right, the guttering that will collect any excess rain water, the hose pipe goes to a water butt the other side of the garden .

Over time I will add strawberries , nasturtiums and other overhanging plants around the edge so that they will dangle over. I will regularly update you on how the roof turns out. Together with the alpines, I have also sown a selection of wildflowers and grasses, hopefully creating and extra habitat for wildlife.

This picture of the crocus has nothing to do with the living roof, I saw it this morning as I went out into the garden, the way the sun was shining on it caught my eye and I just thought I would share it with you.


Happy Mothers Day to you