Trebol Ecoroof

Last November Ecoroofs Everywhere installed a roof at Trebol Restaurant on N Albina.  Katie Colgan, our intrepid intern taught local schoolkids about ecoroofing and brought them out on a field trip to help out with the planting.  Amy Whitworth of Plan-It-Earth Design provided the planting plan.  Dan and Amy and I revisited the roof Friday.  We weren’t sure what to expect after such a dry summer. (From our experience, many full sun ecoroofs without even a “typical homeowner style” sprinkler setup don’t fare well through the drought.) Kenny, the chef and restaraunt owner was able to water twice a week until July, but the plants were on their own for the hottest part of the summer.  What we found was that the sedums fared well, while some of the other species did not.  This is what we’ve seen elsewhere over the years.  But the interesting thing here was that even of some of those species that did die, they bloomed and went to seed and I found some new seedlings.  For those of you who are plant nerds like Amy and me, here is the list of plants and their level of survivability in the 4″ of well drained lightweight growing media:

Fescue – Died, but reseeded

Oregon Sunshine – Died but reseeded

Yarrow – Died, but reseeded

Mountain Avens – Died

Honeysuckle – Died

Knickinick – Died

Phlox – Died

Sedums and Sempervirens – Lived

Iceplant – Lived