Possibly the most original green roof ever: the snack van from Lulu's Local Eatery
I came across what must surely be the coolest green roof in the world this week.
If you thought creating a green roof on your shed was a bit out there – how about converting the roof of your car?
That’s exactly what Lulu’s Local Eatery has done in downtown St Louis, Missouri. Their food van is pretty unusual looking anyway. But up on the roof, there are little raised beds full of fresh salads and herbs for the staff to pick and add to the falafels and wraps and tacos they’re selling down below.
Can you imagine the potential? All you’d need was maybe a roof rack and a big box and you’re set. Not only do you not need a garden to grow your own veg – you don’t even need a house. Plant up the roof of your Nissan Micra and you’ve got – what, about eight square feet of growing space? That’s enough to keep you in salads all year. Upgrade to a campervan and you’ll never need to go to the shops again.
Lulu's have simply installed little trough-like raised beds around the edge to fill with salads and herbs.
Micro green roofs are everywhere these days, and a great idea they are too considering how little space most of us have to grow things in. I came across a company earlier this year who put green roofs on dog kennels and rabbit hutches. You can green your bike shed, your garden shed, your logstore and the cupboard that houses your electricity meter. Put enough plants on top of everything and you’ll start to have trouble finding your house on Google satellite view. And that, surely, can only be a good thing.
Before you grab a trowel and a bag of compost and head out, though, there are a few things you should bear in mind.
First of all: green roofs are heavy. So if your shed (or rabbit hutch, or Nissan Micra) has little more than a sheet of plywood by way of a roof, you’ll need to strengthen it. You might be able to get away with a nailing a few planks across the top, but if you’re in any doubt whether the walls will hold the full weight of plants, plus wet compost, plus wooden edging – make a whole ‘false’ roof over the top, free-standing on its own sturdy wooden posts.
Actually creating a green roof isn’t that difficult. You’ll need to edge your roof with boards to make a kind of raised bed around 25cm deep. Drill holes through the bottom edge to let water drain out (it’s probably wise to put guttering underneath to catch the drips, too).
Green roof dog kennel from Enviroden. The labrador costs extra, I think.
Line with weed-suppressing membrane, to keep the soil in as much as to keep the weeds out, and fill with a light compost mix – your basic compost on its own is rather too heavy. A good mix is equal parts soil-based loam, peat-free multipurpose and perlite (a kind of volcanic rock which weighs pretty much nothing but helps aerate the compost and holds onto moisture).
If you can’t be bothered with all that – just follow Lulu’s example and make trough-style planters to go around the edge.
Once you’ve done all that, it’s time for the plants. Not all plants are happy on green roofs, particularly if they’re of the small-scale, shed-covering kind. Conditions up there are usually sunny and a little windy, with a shallow root run – not your average veg garden, then.
If your green roof is in the shade, salads, parsley and leafy veg like perpetual spinach and chard will be perfectly happy up there. If it’s sunny, though, go for Mediterranean herbs like thyme, sage, marjoram and rosemary, and fast-growing sun-lovers like beetroot, strawberries, and edible flowers like nasturtiums. Anything that says ‘perfect for containers’ on the seed packet is worth a try, too.
Just have fun and experiment with anything that’s not too deep-rooted, enjoys the sunshine and doesn’t mind things a little on the dry side. You may never see your shed in quite the same way again. Come to think of it, if you grow enough, you may never see your shed again. Nothing like merging your garden buildings into the landscape!
