Green roofs? Does anyone use them?

[crzy4minis]

I am wanting to build a chicken coop with a green roof and possibly the barn too. I was wondering if anyone had used them before or not. Basically I have limited space(.4 acres for chickens, a nigi and a falabella pny plus veggies) and am wanting grow both horizonatlly and vertically. I can grow veggies on the chicken coop but wondered about growing hay, like alfalfa and timothy, on the barn roof for the goat and pony.

 

[goodhors]

I have to believe that the crops you name, grasses for hay, would not really be worth the effort in returns. You need quite a bit of space to get enough cut grasses for enough hay quantity to make a bale.

You would have more invested in materials for watering, dirt lifted up to the roof, fabric protection, than the price of a couple hay bales. Neither the goat or pony, will NEED a lot of hay to keep them looking good. Cheaper to purchase the hay, save yourself the work of climbing up on the barn roof to get your crops.

Also involved would be the reinforcing of the base structure to hold up the weight of dirt for growing the plants. Is your chicken coop (picturing small, 12 x 12 ft structure) heavily supported for snow on roof? Wood shingles, or even tarpaper, is not going to be able to manage the constant dampness, keep it out of the subroof sheathing. Wet boards rot and weaken. Roofs are not designed to be wet constantly. You would need to change the roof before setting up your planting system, with heavier support, waterproofing membranes to be the base of planting structures above.

Again, I can not see the cost of growing your own stuff, off setting the investment needed to do roof growing. Even purchased veggies and hay, still would be cheaper than green roof investment money.

Small, movable panels or electric fence on the ground, might let you grow grasses for loose hay. Or you could do small rotational grazing pens for the animals and birds, only allowing them on grass for short times, maybe a couple hours a day. Your small animals do NOT need grazing 24 hours a day. Both are designed to get the most nutrition from SPARSE nibbling, and STILL look very nice in body condition. Obese is not kind, can cause hoof problems.

So sorry, green roof is great idea, just not for small settings.

 

[patandchickens]

I'm sorry, but you are not going to be able to grow hay on your coop or barn roof. Well you could but it would be *literally* like about 1/4 bale's worth off a 10x10ish roof -- that's yearly production. And would not take much if any less irrigation than veggies will.

Honestly I do not think it makes sense to do a green roof to try to grow veggies either. A green roof of any size is VERY EXPENSIVE to do in a way that will neither collapse nor leak-and-quickly-rot, and will require a considerable amount of irrigation (watering) if you want to grow grass or vegetables or flowers on it (as opposed to drought-tolerant things like sedums, or "weeds" that will brown off naturally during summertime).

Build a conventional roof, of a type you can harvest rainwater from if you wish; then grow veggies in an intensive-cultivation way so you get as much possible from a small area, including using trellises, containers, windowboxes, or hanging containers.

Honest.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat