Falling in love - with a meadow turf roof!

So, I fell in love ...with several metres of very special turf. This Saturday (31 August) a team of volunteers and two generous experts installed the new green roof at Barracks Lane Community Garden. It looks interesting even now, and will be gloroius in about 6 weeks time.

To install the roof we had to get three tonnes of soil off the back of a trailer, 20m down a narrow alley, and up 2 metres onto the roof of our shelter - all without any electrical or mechanical power, just people, barrows, trugs, and a lot of good will.

We had 16 volunteers and although the intention was to work in shifts of four or five people for an hour at a time, in the end we just all mucked in, taking a rest when we felt like it. We got the soil up onto the roof in about three hours, and then had the fun of lifting up and unfurling the rolls of meadow turf on the roof.

The turf is purpose grown for roofs by Wildflower Turf on James Hewetson-Brown's farm just outside Newbury. It contains 30 species of native wildflower, and four species of grass. James grows it on hessian mats, and this makes it easy to lift, and creates a mat of roots that establish quickly. Once established we shouldn't need to water - even in a drought. It may turn to hay, but with an annual cut in Autumn, it should come back to life each Spring. But at the moment, and in our current drought, it needs to be watered every day - a bit like taking the dog for a walk!

The roof design was done with Kay and Gareth Davies of Oxford Green Roofs - they helped us design the roof so that it retained the soil, put in the layers of butyl and fleece needed to line the roof, and finally organised the supply of the soil and turf. But most importantly they showed the volunteers what to do and how to do it as well as lending a lot of muscle power themselves. They donated their time and expertise to the garden, and we are very grateful!

For Barracks Lane Community Garden as well as contributing to the biodiversity of the site, and increasing the number of native and local species we grow, the roof is also designed to help deal with the rainwater run-off from the shelter, and the concrete slope at the top of the garden. The roof will absorb some rainwater, and what is left over will drain through the gully at the back of the green roof and be collected in a butt to add to the garden's water harvesting and storage system.

Green Roof and Solar Panels for Barracks Lane Community Garden

At Barracks Lane Community Garden our eco shelter is moving forward! Thanks to a generous grant from the Trust for the Oxfordshire Environment and the Oxfordshire Preservation Trust we have started the installation of a green roof and solar panels on our new shelter.

The green roof is being supplied by Oxford Green Roofs, and the owners, Kay and Gareth Davies are generously donating their time and expertise, charging us only for materials. The first phase, installation of the butyl liner and the edging restraint was completed in May, and we have now fixed a date to complete the roof the substrate and meadow turfing. 31st July is a while away - we had to find a weekend date when the garden wasn't being used by young children, and when we could gather together enough volunteers to barrow the substrate down the access lane and onto the roof.

We already have a great group of volunteers from Phil Pritchard's permaculture group, and I'm sure when we advertise more widely for volunteers there will be quite a few garden users who want to learn about green roof installation.

It's such a good time to be doing this, with the RSPB and wildlife trusts appealing to gardeners and developers to think about creating wildlife corridors and habitats. At Barracks Lane we'll be able to show all our visitors how a green roof can add beauty and biodiversity to a garden and neighbourhood. Our roof is going be meadowturf, not sedum, and will offer habitat to a range of insects and birds. Watch this space for pictures later in the year!

Meanwhile, Russell Dominian who built the eco shelter at Barracks Lane, has the first 'green roof' in a van that I've ever seen!

The solar panels are now in position on the roof, waiting for connection to the grid. This is proving to be more problematic that anticipated because of the need to dig a new trench through the concrete access pathway. But we're investigating a number of solutions, and hope to have this sorted by next week. Meanwhile I am busy designing a cupboard to house the meter and inverter for the panels and grid connection - not just any old cupboard, but one which has a see-through door at eye-level, so that children (and adults) can learn about how energy from the sun can make electricity for us all.

Artweeks at Barracks lane Community Garden

Artweeks is over in central Oxford ... my first time as an exhibitor , and it was such fun. My fellow designer Emi Itoh and I exhibited our garden designs and photographs in the yurt at Barracks Lane Community Garden.

The yurt is a great venue- it has a beautiful translucent light, even - or perhaps especially- when there's rain; and it's so welcoming, a sheltering round space which intrigues children and adults alike. When it was cold we chopped logs and lit the wood-burning stove. We had so many visitors - a lot of them were visiting the garden for the first time, and it was wonderful to welcome them to the yurt and our exhibition. The exhibition - of garden plans, 3D models, mood boards, planting plans - prompted lots of questions from our visitors about what we actually do as garden and landscape designers. It was a great opportunity to discuss what we do and how we think - about the relationship between sustainability and aesthetics, and how this shapes choices about design, materials, plants, and the ways in which we use our outdoor spaces.

Thanks so much to the garden for letting us host our exhibition at the Yurt, and to all our visitors - please do visit the garden again, find out what's on at http://www.barrackslanegarden.org.uk