Pickin Weeds

It is certainly that time of year to talk about maintenance and efficient management of your green roof!  I visited several this week in Chicago and Minneapolis. The Target Center roof is 2.5 acres full of natives and succulents- robust this time of year!  With the regular and excessive rainfall, we haven't even turned on the irrigation on 3" soil!  The short video was shot on my phone on Friday, 7-18-14.  The video links to AD Greenroof's facebook page.  Please check it out!

The photo on the left shows some aggressiveness from Cassia on Target Center's roof.  Cassia (partridge pea) is a biennial, meaning it produces vegetated growth in year one, then in year two it flowers, sets seeds, and dies.  We have noticed increased populations and spread of this particular species across the roof over the years and try to manage it properly to keep ecosystem balance.  What about the bugs? On Friday, I was bombarded with grasshoppers, bees, some flies and even birds. Where else are they going to hang out downtown? :)

This week, I also completed some maintenance for the Met Council on their Farmington, MN waste water treatment site.  It's a lovely green roof, with some volunteer milkweed plants right in the center! The research team is starting data collection and AD Greenroof completed a plant survey earlier this year. 

Do you have a green roof and have questions regarding its care?  Please contact angie@adgreenroof.com and share some photos if you can. We look forward to hearing from you!