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

Green Roof Remodel: End of Day 28

Irrigation!!  Hallelujah, happy day!  The green roof is so close to complete, you can almost taste it!  The irrigation system is in, the plants are happy and watered, and the mess of pots are off the roof.  The only things left to do are tweek some of the sprinkler heads, fill in some of the gaps with flowers we are picking up tomorrow at Laporte Avenue Nursery near Fort Collins, CO, and mulch the whole roof with light-colored pea gravel.  Stay tuned!

 

This lovely rock we found during our cactus hunting expedition.  Look at the diversity of lichens on this single rock!  We put it in a spot of honor near the entrance gate.

Written by Brenna Marsicek, UW Biodiversity Institute

Green Roof Remodel: End of Day 24 (late!)

Friday was another productive day, including planting some of the last plants and installing the irrigation.  We're waiting on a couple more sprinkler heads, to finish the irrigation, and are at a stand-still until that happens.

Laying irrigation: 

Dorothy and I went out to a ranch where we (legally and with permission) harvested cacti of 3 varieties: Prickly Pear (Opuntia polyacantha), Mountain Ball (Pediocactus simpsonii) and Pincushion (Coryphantha vivipara).  Incidentally, my new favorite food is cactus fruit.

Here are the cacti in situ:

Pincushion Cactus

Prickly Pear Cactus in the foreground, with Pincushion Cactus in the background.

We are doing more plant shopping on Wednesday to find wildflowers to fill in some of the gaps, so more new plants are on the way!  Stay tuned!

Written by Brenna Marsicek, UW Biodiversity Institute

Green Roof Remodel: End of Day 24

Yesterday was a much more pleasant day for planting, and planting we did!  The landscaping crew made incredible progress, and this morning are now out there in 45 degree weather finishing up the last little areas. 

Photos of the progress:

 

 

Written by Brenna Marsicek, UW Biodiversity Institute

Green Roof Remodel: End of Day 23

Yesterday was a wet, sloppy, cold day to be planting - but we planted nonetheless!  The first of the new green roof plants were plugged into the growing medium, starting with the ones on the north end (alpine section) and moving south.  And with predictions of hard freezing and possibly snow on Thursday night, we're working as fast as we can to get these plants in the ground.

Photos of the progress:

End of the day photos:

And lots more to do!

Written by Brenna Marsicek, UW Biodiversity Institute

Green Roof Remodel: End of Day 22

The Berry Prairie is transforming.  Gone is the flat landscape that was, here are the hills and plains of the new roof.  The plants we bought new (as opposed to transplanted off of the roof) all arrived late last week, and today we began laying them out.  We are creating three distinct planting zones: alpine (mountains), foothills and plains/prairie.  The planting begins in the morning tomorrow!

Here are a few photos of the progress today:

Brandon (red - Arcon Inc.), Dorothy (yellow - Biodiversity Institute), and Allison (green - Inside Out Landscapes) laying out plants

Allison working on plant layout

End of day - doesn't even look like we made a dent in the plant pile!  So many left!

Foothills section (foreground) leading into alpine section (background)

Alpine section - mostly laid out

We have lots more work to do, and it'll start happening quickly now that the plants and the landscaping folks are here. Stay tuned for updates!

Written by Brenna Marsicek, Biodiversity Institute

Trial Run

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Richard Sutton, professor of agronomy and horticulture at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, sent us an email to see if we'd like to try out a few different prairie plants on the green roof.  It's part of a larger research project (see their website here) trailing three species' survivability and persistence through dry periods, cold, and varying "soil" depths. 

Dr. Sutton was kind enough to send us not only the three species they're studying to try out on the Berry Prairie as part of the study, but also a fourth that he recommended would do well - and four of each species.  We're curious folk over here, so thought we'd give it a whirl.

New arrivals!

So here's what we received and planted:

Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis 'Conard')

This common short-grass prairie species was already planted on the green roof, but this particular variety ('Conard') is new to us.  Blue grama is a staple in Wyoming, and on the Berry Prairie too - we have over 900 individual plants of this species planted!  Let's see how this variety does.

Hairy Grama (Bouteloua hirsuta)

This cousin to Blue grama is found in the very eastern edge of Wyoming (see the Rocky Mountain Herbarium site).  Although it's not found within 30 miles of Laramie, as all of our other plants, it is an interesting grass.  See how the anthers dangle below the flower of the grass?  That's what makes it "hairy."

Hairy grama flower

Blue grama flower

Sun Sedge (Carex inops heliophila)

This sedge is found through the eastern third(ish) of the state - see the map here.  It's an early season sedge so is often one of the first plants to green up in the spring (Forest Service website). 

Sand Dropseed (Sporobolus cryotandrus)

This grass is a warm weather (late summer) bloomer that prefers dry, usually sandy areas.  It's found throughout North America.  [Prairie dropseed is my personal favorite of the Wyoming grasses, but perhaps this one will win my heart.]

Photo from Prairie Moon Nursery

 
 
Stay tuned for their progress.

Written by Brenna Marsicek, Biodiversity Institute

A Return to Normalcy

After three full months of chaos surrounding the green roof defects (holes in the roof caused by human error, pulling up the green roof, drying out and replacing the roof layers, flood testing the layers and putting the soil back on), the plants are going back in!

The process started yesterday (Tuesday) morning.  The plants were hauled from the Jacoby Golf Course in northeastern Laramie to the Berry Center, where they were grouped by section (section indicated by the different colored tags in the plants and by tape on the railings) and identified by species (the number listed on each tag).

Then, following the original map created by the architectural firm that designed the Berry Center and the green roof, Malone Belton Abel, we arranged the plants as closely as we could to the original schematic.  This is important not only from a design standpoint, but also for Kyle's research. 

We spent all of yesterday and half of today just arranging plants.  Thousands and thousands of plants. 

And at 1:00 this afternoon, the crew started the last phase: plant installation!

More soon, as these plants readjust to life on a green roof before fall arrives.

Written by Brenna Wanous Marsicek