Design ideas
Giving your roof a green makeover is a glorious idea, argues designer James Alexander-Sinclair and one that will turn your neighbours green with envy
Usually we pay no attention to roofs – unless they are extraordinary (like the onion domes of Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow or the one where Dick Van Dyke and his posse of camp chimney sweeps cavorted in Mary Poppins). Instead we take them for granted most of the time and all we ask is that they keep the rain off our heads. However, roofs do not have to be joyless, grey things for they can also be full of life and excitement if they transmogrify into green roofs. Before we start let me be clear about one important thing – green roofs are not roof gardens. We are not talking about rooftops supporting trees or places to entertain (although you could if you wanted) but simply covering roofs with something more attractive and more sustainable than asphalt.
I have two green roofs: one is of sedum and one consists of a raging frenzy of wildflowers. They each have their own benefits and drawbacks. The sedum roof, above the kitchen, requires no maintenance (apart from the occasional five minutes weeding) and spends much of the summer as a hangout for every bee within a five mile radius – at least it feels like that when the joint is humming like a kazoo orchestra in full flow. As I must always be scrupulously honest, I have to admit that it also looks a bit rubbish in the depths of winter. The garage has a wildflower roof, which has a fabulous few weeks in midsummer when it is covered in campion, ragged robin, ox-eye daisies, wild carrot, clover and yarrow augmented with various early spring bulbs that I have flung into the mix. It too has a downside in around August when it looks as dry as an abandoned sandal, however, once strimmed it quickly greens up.
A green roof is a lovesome thing and one that should be mandatory for anybody either building, or already in possession