The Importance of Proactive Green Roof Maintenance

Maintenance. You’ll hear a lot of talk about this when designing and planning for a green roof installation. How often? What does it entail? How expensive is it? Is it necessary?

Some clients, specifically those who are mainly interested in undergoing the project to meet their municipality’s stormwater retention requirements, think they can skip out on investing in a professional green roof maintenance contract, and go with a cheaper, less qualified landscaper to do the work instead. Or, even worse, they don’t sign on with anyone at all to do maintenance. These clients often end up calling back after a few years because the plants are not doing very well on their roof. 

Proper maintenance is critical to the long-term survival of the plants and the likelihood they will thrive. Healthy plants contribute to more stormwater retention, more evapotranspiration, support biodiversity and look great. Green roof maintenance has nuances that a traditional, ground-level, landscaper could easily overlook without prior experience with rooftop greenery. This skillful practice is not a one-size-fits-all type of deal; maintenance regimes will look different for intensive green roofs, sedum extensive roofs, pollinator meadows, and rooftop farms. Implementing spring maintenance of a green roof is especially critical to ensure a prosperous growing season.

Beyond the different types of green roofs, your spring maintenance regime will look slightly different based on your respective climate zone. For example, a green roof in a tropical climate like Singapore will have a much different plant palette than one installed in Denver, Colorado. A big goal of the roof in Denver is to retain as much moisture as possible to withstand the summer heat and possible drought. A core challenge of a green roof in Singapore is ensuring proper drainage so the plants don’t drown from excessive rainfall. In essence, a significant difference in climate will translate to differences in the kind of maintenance conducted. This is due largely to the difference in plants chosen based on the desired functions of the system. However, the main pillars of spring maintenance remain more or less the same, no matter the type of system or geographic location. 

Soil/Growing Medium Health

As a green roof owner or maintainer, you’ll want to pay close attention to nutrient levels in the soil/growing medium to ensure it is healthy and able to foster optimal, long-term plant growth. Once there is no longer a concern of frost, that is a good time to conduct a low cost, lab-tested soil/growing media sample. Although there should be sufficient nutrients in the growing media used on a roof, it is proactive to have samples taken once or twice per year, even for juvenile green roofs, ones that are still in the establishment period. The first tests on a new roof set a baseline for that site’s nutrient makeup, so that every test after that point can be looked at in comparison. 

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