Roof garden

Curious Geroge

I recently built a flat roof (slight slope) garage at the rear of the house and got the roofer to cover it in rubber building a perimeter around it. The idea was to put a wildflower or similar there but its difficult to find any garden center that has done this before. Anyone familar or maybe have done a low maintainance rooftop garden with alot of colour ? Thanks

ponddigger

hi, any photos . jack

iainBB

How much reinforcing have you done on the roof to take the weight of the soil, water, people and possible snow on the roof.

I would say you have to double at least the standard rafters?

pwurple

I've helped with a roof garden for a friend before.

Your wildflower idea is a nice one, but a lot of packs sold as 'wildflower mixes' tend to be arable based... as in , they are the type of plants that flourish with regular ploughing of land, and turning over of soil. Not something to be undertaken lightly on a roof!

Weight is a huge consideration.

What we did, was use tall lightweight planters around the edge of the roof, to build a screen, from wind and for privacy. Bamboo went into those, with a few gaps for views. There was then an inner ring of lower planters within there, planted with colourful plants (herbaceous mixed with bedding), and some veg/herbs. We put a 'lid' on some of the planters, to form seating. A spot for a cushion here and there.

Put a cafe style table and chairs in there, done.


The planters were 50% full of polystyrene pellets, to reduce weight as well. And the planters were on feet, to allow drainage off the roof.