This is a five storey multi family unit approximately two years old in Brooklyn, New York. The owners of the penthouse floor approached Holly, Wood and Vine, LTD to design and install a garden for their extensive terrace spaces surrounding the apartment. These surfaces were at the time covered in a silver roof membrane and surrounded by parapet walls.Marie Viljoen, the garden designer for this project, suggested that the family break the different areas of their wrap-around terraces into separate-use gardens: a playtiled space for the children to put their recreation equipment on, a gravelled fruit and vegetable garden (planted in containers), a deck area for entertaining, and, on a separate terrace, a greenroof. The master bedroom opens onto this terrace and the parents asked for a private space where they could sit and escape from the rest of the world.They both responded positively to the idea of a greenroof. They liked its low-maintenance aspect; its aesthetic appeal, and the environmentally positive effect of greenrooves in general. The greenroof was completed on July 20, 2005 and the cost was about $18/sf.

We used two rolls of GRS J-Drain manufactured by JDR Enterprises. Each roll is 50′ L x 4’W. Additionally we used filter fabric for the first 5″ of the silver membrane walls to retain soil paticles that might wash out. For the planted areas 100 bags of Fafard container mix and 20 bags of sand were used as the growing medium. Because it is a new buiding contructed with steel I beams, weight was not a major issue, and the average weight is about 13 lbs per square foot, at a planting depth of 4 inches. For the path and seating area we used 36 bags of river gravel.Plants:100 Sedum tetractinum, 1 qrt100 Sedum “John Creech,” 1 qrt 100 Sedum spurium “Dragon’s Blood,” 1 qrt32 Rubus calcynoides, 3qrtThe sedums were planted in swathes for contrasting colour and bloom-times, and the creeping raspberry along the path, for easy picking. Delivery of materials (including those for the rest of the garden) took a day by crane, and actual installation of the greenroof took one day, by a crew of three in 95 degree F. The difference in temperature on the roof once it was installed seemed instant! Butterflies and bees arrived as we left.