One of our favorite green roof projects is totally taking off! Here’s a look at the Village of Orland Park’s municipal roof one year later.
If you caught our last report on the Village of Orland Park municipal green roof, then you already know how proud we are of this project. And you also know some of its main highlights. We:
- Partnered with the village government to create a public-private game plan that taught many village workers about green roofs
- Created a 1,600-foot green roof with 300 feet of amenity space
- Used porcelain pavers on adjustable pedestals plus an almost completely local plant palette from Pizzo Nursery
- Employed cutting-edge technologies, such as a prototype high-efficiency water retention layer and thin, light growing media
- Installed monitoring equipment, so we can gather information on weather patterns, rainfall, evapotranspiration, cooling effects created by the roof and water retention, among other things
All in all? Pretty exciting.
But no green roof is meant to live only a few months. In fact, according to experts, green roofs should live between 30 and 50 years if properly cared for. Which is why, after we install one, we wait eagerly to see how it does.
Well, folks. The jury is in: The Village of Orland Park’s little rooftop is kicking butt so far.
A Great Growing Season
Although this past cold season was a little tough for the rest of us, our green roof over in Orland Park seemed to love it. Guess they didn’t get the memo that winter sucks? They didn’t even have that much snow to protect them, but they still made it. Plus, this was followed by a nice, cool, wet spring, which plants love for putting on greenery.
The takeaway is, the little 5-inch plugs that we planted in fall of last year are now 3 feet tall. That’s right: After only one growing season, these guys are already acting like they’re at home in a giant native meadow.
Keep in mind, some of them are growing in as little as 2 inches of soil as well, which is just incredible. So far, Orland Park’s municipal roof is a true poster child of what intelligent engineering can accomplish.
Unexpected Results … and That’s a Good Thing
The results give us an enormous amount of hope in terms of plant resilience. The truth is, planting on rooftops is a bit of a gamble. These novel environments are asking a lot of plants, and sticking them out there is a little bit like giving them a head pat and saying: “Sorry guys, good luck! Hope you have your winter boots on!”
Turns out, we needn’t have worried … though we did see some surprising results. Given the weird weather, little snowfall, harsh cold and wet spring, there were plants that horticulturally should never have survived, and then others that should never have been killed.
What do we make of this? *insert shrug emoji*
For instance, talinum (fameflower) is a marginal hardy plant that provides great groundcover. But given this year’s Chicago winter and its succulent tendencies, it should never have survived – yet it did. We’re now putting it on other roofs to see how well it does, because #experimentation.
We also greatly underestimated the heartiness of wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana). This fruit-bearing groundcover, which goes dormant in nonoptimal conditions, survived. In spades. Errrrrrywhere. Choking out other slower growing natives, we have now declared wild strawberry persona non grata.
On the other hand, we’ve never killed an allium … but this year we did. There’s a first time for everything.
The truth is, books and online resources and botanical gardens and scientists and papers can all be good guides, but they don’t know everything. Nothing can account for the minute differences in microclimate that attend each distinct green roof location, which is why it’s so important to experiment. That’s why our approach is to:
- Use native plants wherever possible to see if they work
- Sub in sedums and other green roof workhorses where necessary
- Track plant health year to year to ensure nobody is bullying or being bullied
- Address the health of the entire plant community as needed
That, in turn, is why monitoring is so awesome.
A Whole New Ecosystem, Alive and Kicking – and On Camera
Did we mention that Orland Park’s green roof has allllll the equipment? Because it does.
Right now we’re collecting numerous metrics on the green roof day to day, hour to hour. We’re getting timelapse footage of spring and summer growth. We’ve gotten some good drone footage showing the progression of the roof. And we’re taking careful notes – which is our little way of helping this exploding niche improve.
Oh, and did we mention we had a pair of Canada geese nesting here? They laid their eggs on the roof, hatched them, and all the babies made it down to the pond below safe and sound. That’s just cute.
A Fabulous Resource Created
As part of the Village of Orland Park project, we also created a plant portfolio (see image) to showcase the species we used on the rooftop. The Village and our partners on the project now have a resource to which they can refer year after year, monitoring the growth of plants, showing to visitors on educational tours and keeping in touch with their green roof.
This, honestly, is one of the most important things you can do as a green roof owner or steward: Know it. Check on it. Partner with it, as well as its stewards, to meet its needs year in and year out. And we humbly feel that more educational resources like this one are needed.
Anyway, as you can see, this project is making us very happy. Although, to be fair, green roofs in general make us pretty happy, so … ya know. We’re biased.
Think you might be happier if you had a green roof in your life as well? We couldn’t agree more. Get in touch with the friendly team here at Ecogardens to share your vision with us, and we’ll see what we can do!
