Green Roof Remodel: Ta-Da!

The green roof is finished!  Wow, what a process, what a project!  It went from a flat, local, lovely yet somewhat dull prairie to a curvy, diverse and intriguing set of ecotones. 

 Before:

After:

A photo gallery of the roof is below.  Come by the Berry Center to walk through the roof to get an up-close look.

Prairie section:

Consists of lots of drought-tolerant plants, including cacti, yucca, twinpod, draba, sulfur flower, grasses, liatris, and more.

Foothills section:

Consists mostly of shrubs, a little more water-loving forbs like dwarf pussytoes, clematis, pasqueflower, bitterroot and more, and grasses.

Alpine section:

Consists of mostly sedges and short or super cold-hardy, water happy plants like phlox, moss campion, man on the mountain, nodding onion, columbine and more.

This neat little plant (Telesonix, green fan-shaped leaves under rocks) is a water- and shade-loving crevice plant.  Cutie, eh?

Monitoring irrigation for adjustments:

The last thing to do on on the roof before it's 100% buttoned up is adjust the irrigation so the spray zones are matched to the planting zones.  That way, we can make sure that the cacti and columbine aren't getting the same amount of water (you can imagine the results!). 

Open to the public

The green roof is now ready for anyone to walk through and explore.  Please stay on the pathways and watch for tiny or prickly plants!  Let us know what you think!

Written by Brenna Marsicek, UW Biodiversity Institute