Intensive Versus Extensive Roof Garden

Intensive green roofs weigh from 35 pounds to beyond 100 pounds per square foot when dry it is all a matter of the soil depth which is affected by the amount of mounding that is used.

Intensive versus extensive roof garden.

Intensive garden roof assembly. Intensive vs extensive a green roof comes in two varieties. An extensive green roof is characterized by a thinner layer of soil and smaller plants. Intensive green roofs commonly thought of as garden roofs are the more complex of the two exhibiting much greater plant diversity and a greater need for design expertise says peck.

For existing homes glazer recommends the extensive roof garden. The distinction is based on the kind of plant involved. Extensive roof gardens are lighter cheaper and shallower. It also allows for a formal garden to be installed with paths grass lawn and flowers or pot plants.

Intensive gardens are heavier and more expensive. The intensive green roof uses planting mediums that have greater depth than the extensive green roof. However the gardendrain component has a taller profile and is filled with expanded aggregate to provide greater water storage and to support a greater depth of growing. Green roofs with more than 6 inches of media are considered intensive.

This deeper soil allows intensive roofs to accommodate large plants and dramatic plant groupings. Their depth can range up to 2 feet or more depending on the weight constraints of the roof. If you increase that planting depth by a foot or two though a whole new realm of possibility opens up. Intensive planting there are two ways of planting a roof.

A semi intensive green roof can give rise to a richer ecology with more diverse plant and animal species. Typically these roofs will have more soil and some small shrubs as well as the low growing wildflowers and sedums found on an extensive roof. Intended for recreational sporting and leisure purposes they are often indistinguishable from at grade landscapes. Another term for these green roofs is rooftop garden intensive green roofs require more maintenance because of the plant varieties they will support.

Vegetative roofs are divided into two categories. Intensive green roofs. The plants that are mostly used on extensively planted roofs include grasses mosses herbs and succulents. There are two general types of green roofs.

The landscape possibilities with an intensive garden roof assembly are virtually limitless. Typically extensive green roofs strive for environmental benefits cooling and stormwater management prime among them over human amenity space. 1 extensive vegetative roofs which are 6 inches or shallower and are frequently designed to satisfy specific engineering and performance goals and 2 intensive vegetative roofs which may become quite deep and merge into more familiar on structure plaza landscapes with promenades lawn large perennial plants and trees.