One of my favorite areas to explore and learn about is green infrastructure. Green areas are around all of us whether we are at home, on our commute to work, or relaxing on the weekends. However, as our communities extend and new buildings are built, these spaces seem to be dwindling, shrinking or disappearing all together. Enter green infrastructure.
Hopefully most of our readers are already familiar with green roof systems, but to be honest I wasn’t, so I thought I would fill you in with a blog, a “green roofs for dummies” if I may.
This blog is going to focus on the fun stuff, the plants. One of our distributors, a company called Sedum Master, recently opened their doors to us for an information day. Greg and his team specialize in providing sedum solutions for green roof applications.
Definition of Sedum: A widely distributed fleshy-leaved plant (genus Sedum) with small star-shaped yellow, pink, or white flowers, grown as an ornamental.
Sedum Master grows over 500 species of sedums throughout their properties, and has very high standards for each and every plant that leaves their property. “If it was on a store shelf would I buy it? If not it goes into the reject pile” – Greg (President of Sedum Master). Some of their new species include: Blue Pearl, Cherry Tart, and Lime Zinger. With names like those they sound almost good enough to eat.
Lime Zinger
Cherry Tart
Blue Pearl
My favourite is Cherry Tart - What's yours?
Sedums have many interesting characteristics which makes them the perfect candidate for green roof spaces: drought tolerance, hardiness, ability to survive in direct sunlight, and (maybe the bestcharacteristic) promotion of biodiversity by attracting butterflies, bumble bees and birds. While on a tour of the Sedum Master facility, Greg explained that almost every species of sedum is a pollinator, therefore helping to fight the good fight against dwindling bee populations.
If you aren’t interested in sedums, green roof spaces can also be home to a variety of other plants provided soil levels are deep enough. At 10 cm of soil you can add several species of grasses, Alliums, Herbs and Wildflowers. At 15 cm, grasses, Columbines, Asters, Black Eyed Susan’s and even vegetables can thrive. Whether you want a simple self-sustaining space, a colourful oasis, an ocean of wild flowers, or a practical vegetable garden, the possibilities are endless with green roofs, so dare to be different!
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope you found something interesting to take away from it. Please keep your eye out for “Green Roofs for Dummies” Part 2 next month.
Laura DeGraaf
Sales & Marketing
“Green is the prime colour of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises”
– Pedro Calderonde la Barca