genius...ecotopias, things like this, thanks for featuring, there's hope...

So great. I'm going to push this with my building's board.

Thanks for featuring this! Does anyone know of a similar company/service available in New York City? I, too, would love to push for my building's board to consider this.

Chris, their website says the things are ready for shipping anywhere in the US or Canada.

I saw these on a home improvement show where a barren roofdeck was getting a makeover. The effect on the show was not impressive because the trays looked like top row in the first picture. You could see the edges and the whole effect looked unfinished. However, I did not even think of the growth over the edges (the show trays were grass so I assumed that the grass would grow vertically so would not hide the tray edges) and the second picture looks a lot better and shows how well this can work.

There is the seed (pun intended) of a really creepy science fiction story here, as archeologists in the future discover a roof-weed-choked Manhattan...

p(2), isn't that known as the high line?

see 'west side abandoned rail project nyc' for anyone that doesn't get the reference....

guys, this is all a GREAT idea, but I think we should all focus on the green movement to start doing things that are very easy to achieve, low cost, high impact to the environment. While I understand that in NYC the impact of summer heat generated by the amount of flat roofs in Manhattan and LIC is high, I am a strong believer that we can start by planting trees. According to specialists, roof top vegetation requires some specific infrastructure before the actual garden, so lets focus on planting trees. Please, all of you out there that care about our cities, take a walk around your neighbourhood and see how many more trees your street could handle, or do with. Write to Bloomeberg that you care about more trees. I have been fighting for 2 yrs now in planting more trees in my neighbourhood and it is prooving to be a challenge. But still hoping

THe rooftop gardens also achieve high impact help for energy conservation Anusha, by reducing the heat-sink effect of a flat black rooftop, you can 1, reduce the energy needed to cool the building, 2, reduce the heat put off by the building (lowering the neighborhood temp) - this is actually a great way to make a lot of impact.

Clarification - another item on the benefits list, omitted above, is that **many** roofs require no additional structural support. You don't just buy a bunch of these, set them around, and then sit up on the roof sipping cocktails, you do really need a roofer.

That said, green roofs are a wonderful idea. Not only by mitigating the "urban heat island" effect, but also easing strain on water management systems.

Cheers,
Joanne

Wow. That sure beats the silver paint stuff I'm scheduled to put on my roof.

I'm glad you pulled this post back up!

Someone was just telling me about sebum green roofs.
Sebums are succulents - friend was showing me some that were lasting on a rooftop in Chicago.
CHICAGO!
That struck me as amazing.
And made me think it would be quite viable for the relatively tame NYC winters.

p.s.
the sebums are also sold in those lightweight squares

If anyone has any specific company recs, I'd be interested.
The co. in the original post was recommended by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Sebum is a natural oil from your skin. Sedum is a hardy succulent for your green roof.

Check out http://www.greengridroofs.com. Very similar idea. They have plastic trays and use mainly Sedum plans. They are primarily focused on large commercial building roofs, but I checked with them a year ago and they had a DIY program for homeowners. We are planning to use them as part of our roofdeck here in Chicago.

Damn, have I been living under a rock? I've never seen this before.

I'd love to see some pics of your roofdeck when you get it done Darwin.

For those who are interested, wikipedia has a nice piece on green roofs.

Last time this was on the site, I forwarded it to my board, hoping they would consider it. They didn't.

So, I just forwarded it again, with more hope.

It seems like such a great idea; is there any down side?

gorgeous! i can't wait to get a rooftop apartment!

imagine a pebble or stone area for seating, a path, then the rest of the roof filled with these gorgeous tiles and some other plants!

In addition to Sedum, does anyone have additional recommendations for drought-resistant, good-looking ground cover plants?

Some ground-covers I especially like that are drought resistant are:

1. Delosperma cooperi, which is known as iceplant,(small succulent leaves like the lowest of the sedums, with daisy-shaped flowers in yellow, pink, or purple)

2. Sempervivum tectorum, the classic "Hens and chicks" which is very hard to kill, takes shade, and comes in a bunch of different colors of foliage, including red and chartreuse/gold as well as green.

3. Hardy prickly pear cactus, which IS thorny, but has an interesting form and yellow rose-like flowers. It WILL live in NYC, as well as Arizona.

4. Liriope muscari, which is known as lilyturf or monkey grass or a lot of other common names, looks like clumps of grass, but often with variegated blades, and it has purple flowers in summer. It is VERY hard to kill lilyturf in shade, but it doesn't love sun. This is great if you have areas with only northern light or something, and it contrasts with the more succulent-looking plants by being soft tufts of "grass." It doesn't really want to be mowed, but it grows less than a foot tall.

5. Thyme, mother-of-thyme, wooly thyme, and elfin thyme are all really hardy and drought resistant in full sun. Bees do love their flowers, so that could be an issue, but thyme asks for hardly any care, and has pretty purple-pink flowers.

Now that I've TOTALLY worn out my welcome, I'm gonna go. Great 1st post, huh? :)

JosieDaisy,

I think that was a greta first post - and good plant suggestions!

The only experience I have with succulents is with sedums (and my indoor ghost cactus) and I have to say that they spread quickly and are very easy to maintain. It has made me consider planting many other hardy succulents in the garden.

Keep posting!

Does anyone know how to prevent seeding of green roofs by invasive plants like blackberry bushes? Blackberries grow amok here in Seattle and with birds eating and spreading the fruit, I'm not sure, apart from keeping a goat atop your roof, how one prevents a green roof from becoming a tangled rodent-harboring brush pile? Just curious...

I built a flat-roofed house so I could have greenroof/outdoor living space on top. Right now I seem to be on track for getting it finished sometime around 2050. OTOH, I'd only need about 500 people to buy one square each and bring them over and we'll be set...

how about if I fire up the grill and make some cocktails?

Tess - why not just make the roof a bird habitat? LOL. I can't imagine blackberries would live very long. They wouldn't have enough soil for their root structure. You would probably have some blackberry weeds but I don't think they'd become full-grown brush piles. (Then again I don't know much about blackberries).

Josie's post reminds me of this abandoned house we used to have across the way. It had a native prickly pear growing on the roof. Probably planted by a bird. (Bringing things full circle here.) Someone eventually fixed up the house, which was nice, but alas for the cactus.

Tess, I was thinking along the same lines. I have helicopter seed pods from my maple tree sprouting seedlings all over the place, so I'd have to be extra vigilant that none of them set up shop on the roof!

I love the idea, though, and it looks great.

Check out www.plantedroof.com. We are expanding our installation options in the New York City area. We offer several green roof products, including LiveRoof - a fully vegetated modular system designed by horticulturalists to outperform other systems. We are committed to working with homeowners and co-op boards to design and deliver the best green roof for their needs. Contact us via www.plantedroof.com.