Watch your local listings of garden events, and the next time Ed Snodgrass is lecturing in your area, don't miss it. We met Ed at a regional meeting of the Garden Writers Association in Washington, DC -- where he led the tour of the new green roof installed last year atop the headquarters of the American Society of Landscape Architects ( ASLA). As you can see, in just a year the green roof plants are thriving in DC's heat and humidity, and the experiment is well ... a huge success.
Ed told us that green roofs have a rainfall retention rate of up to 77 percent, dramatically reducing the flow of stormwater. They also insulate in winter and cool down buildings in summer, reducing energy costs, and in cities, they reduce the "heat island" effect. Depending on the type of roof you install, they either survive wind and drought conditions or they require some irrigation plus plant maintenance. Ed showed us a slide of the approach to Stuttgart airport in Germany -- and instead of a sea of asphalt roofs, there's a swath of green atop the buildings as far as your eye can see.
Ed also has a great personal story. He's the 5th generation to farm his family's old homestead in Harford County, Maryland, sandwiched between Baltimore and the Pennsylvania border. Only these days, Emory Knoll Farms is growing a new kind of crop. Once flourishing with corn, soybeans, cattle and more, the 1980's were hard on farmers, and Ed, a committed conservationist, decided to switch gears. The farm is now the only nursery in the United States devoted to growing plants for the green roof industry.
Emory Knoll uses no paper plant catalogues: the catalogue is online only. The farm's water wells are powered by solar energy. Plant inventory is over-wintered in unheated greenhouses. Used cooking oil and kitchen grease are collected from local restaurants and the oil is burned for heat. And there's much, much more that's detailed on the farm's website. Ed's now a top consultant for green roof projects all over the United States, and the next time he's in your area, go listen and learn and get on board the coming green revolution.
(click to enlarge images)
Emory Knoll may be the largest and the oldest nursery specializing in green roof plants, but they are not the only one. There are others landing contracts and doing installations. One (run by a friend of mine) is Motherplants in Ithaca, NY. You can visit their website here: http://www.motherplants.net/ or read my post about them here: http://www.remarc.com/craig/?p=154
Posted by: Ellis Hollow | July 17, 2007 at 07:07 PM