Roof Gardens

Roof Gardens

Some years ago we started designing and building roof gardens, in those days specialised materials were not too plentiful, so invariably we ended up inventing our own solutions. This award winning project dates back to 1984.

Here’s how we did this :

Specialised planter box
Specialised planter box

Each plant grouping is planted inside a GRP container that has artificial rock sides, the larger rocks are free standing, the containers are filled with planting compost. The paving is laid on spreader pads, and the gravel is in free draining grids on spreader pads. This means the only variable is the snow loading.

Well apart from a particularly violent storm , ok, it was a hurricane in 1987 which lifted one of the larger rocks off the roof and blew it off the four storey roof into the Kingston upon Thames marker square. It was easy enough to recover, but being so large it wouldn’t fit in the building elevators so we had to haul it up the outside of the building to reposition it.

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Chris Coope

Author: Chris Coope

Born in Great Britain, Chris Dyson-Coope followed his training and passion in the field of horticulture for decades. This path led him to multiple awards for landscape design and many prestigious projects in the United Kingdom and the U.S. Chris has received 19 national awards for projects as varied as city parks, urban regeneration, playgrounds, office parks and streetscapes. He pioneered the use of designer drives in the 1980s utilizing Permacrib to create structural green walls and award-winning green roofs in London. Most recently, Dyson-Coope has nurtured his interest as an educational innovator to produce an Internet radio show (GrowingTrends.com), books on landscaping, and a series of fictional children's books that explore non-fictional themes such as sustainable agriculture, geography, and history. Convinced that the younger generation can (and must) learn from the older generation, as well as blazing new paths toward a sustainable future for a planet in deep distress from climate change and unsustainable practices, Dyson-Coope presents workable solutions in multiple formats, from books to inventions, podcasts and educational media. With several horticultural patents to his credit, the noted horticulturalist looks to the future with hope that the younger generation will grab the "torch" of innovation to develop and maintain a more sustainable world for us all. Dyson-Coope is a member of The Chartered Institute of Horticulture and serves as Director of Children's Sustainable Education for Energime University. Chris lives in Weston, Missouri, with his lovely wife, Cindi.

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