Green infrastructure training supported by the NSW Parks and Liesure Association

They/We came from Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Japan and Singapore. Delegates represented Landscape Architects, Builders, Local & State Government, Doctors, Professors, Engineers and Environmental Scientists.

A small, but as you can see comprehensive group. We shared lectures, visited a research project at Western Sydney University (WSU), Brainstormed industry development and got our hands dirty building a green roof. In fact the attendance size made for usefull discussions and networking.

Lectures included a comprehensive understanding of green infrastructure. Sustainability and Biophilic circular cities was presented by Dr Damian Tang regarding his work in Singapore. Dr Dr Dzevo Alibegic showed the delegates examples of green roofs built around the globe and demonstrated software that can simulate water usage and outflows, cooling and insulation for reduced energy consumption for future greeroof design. Jakub Jerzyniak gave a technical lecture on waterprrofing and protection of building assets when green infrastructure is planned. Professor Ataur Rahman gave us a tour of his Greeenroof research and copies of the 2 papers recently published.

The concensus from this enthusiastic group concluded:

  • A need for National technical standards.

  • Better training, including workshops and seminars like today, should be more widely held.

  • More emphasis on research as that witnessed at WSU today.

  • Maintenance procedures and inspection reports need to be documented.

  • General collaboration with designers, policy makers, manufactureres and installers to develop and promote the industry.

  • We note that Green infrastructure is highly valued overseas, with the Singapore Government funding 50% of project values and their legislation requiring 100% replacement coverage of green infrastructure for the projects M2 footprint. Overseas Government departments provide example projects in many cities with high visibility to promote Green infrastructure.

Zetland angular greenwalls

The guys from Regal Innovations have used Urbanscape technology and their own ingenuity to build an impressive park for Sydney City Council at Green Square. Plants growing on these angular and steep surfaces provides a unique look of this modern city park. Thousands of new residents in this urban zone are catered for by greening their space. Regal manufactured and grew walls off site, numerous shapes were required. Robert Griffith from Evolvement specified and prepared the unique growing media to allow plants to thrive. A 20% additive of Urbanscape Flocks was added to the mix to improve water holding capacity. Urbanscape Flocks does not break down like organic matter to ensuring long term viability of the plantings.

Planning for the ecology on a farm using Regen Farmers Mutual Digital twin technology and muscles!

Since the fires, we no longer have flocks of Glossy Black Cockatoos, their food forests mostly burnt down. Koalas too have less food, particularly the way the Forestry Corporation of NSW are clear felling native forests in the area. The only way I know to fix the problem is to plant more trees. We have entrered a new sustainable forest asset in the Digital Twin software for our farm, and prepared a monitoring program. The hard part was planting the Allocasuarina litoralis, A. toralosa, A. cunninghamiana and Eucalytus microcorys. In 20 years we should be able to harvest some of the timber and admire the thousands of new trees that will be planted. If you would like assistance with your property on biodiversity habitat, let me know. Robert Griffith 0468 787 071.

Win for farmers and the environment in Northern NSW

An environmental farm seminar was held at Billys Creek NSW on Gumbaynggirr Country on the 7th of August 2022. The seminar was held at a farm named Lillys@Billys run be Dorothy and Robert Griffith. The big attendance by the local community at the seminar indicated a willingness to learn new tricks and network amongst like-minded people. The region is part of the Clarence watershed, hence any activities in this area effect a population of 155,000 people in Grafton and surrounding areas. This area supplies water to households from Yamba to Sawtell, south of Coffs Harbour, in Northern NSW Australia.

Evolvement Pty Ltd Environmental Farm Seminar at Lillys@Billys farm at Billys Creek

Below, I list the speakers that shared their experiences.

Justin Williams came to discuss his experience and successes on his farm with grant money provided. He lives on the Nymboida River at Bostobrick and raises cattle. In the river he has Eastern Freshwater Cod, it is rare and classified Endangered. Grant money (around $65,000) he has received has gone into riparian restoration, removal of weeds and provision of water for his cattle away from the river. A sanctuary along his river has been formed for wildlife and the cod. Justin explained how receiving one grant led to more grants as a trust developed in his stewardship. It has not detrimentally affected his farm, only improved productivity and the river.

Mark Graham is the local expert on all things fauna and flora. For the past few months he has been undertaking a detailed environmental plan on the upper regions of the Nymboida/Blicks river system. Mark discussed how restoring the local creeks can provide a sponge to retain water on the farm, whilst reducing erosion runoff and flooding further downstream. Solutions to Bellbird Miner associated dieback of the trees across the region were flagged by Mark and local nursery/restoration specialist Barry Hicks. Bellbirds an aggressive bird, cause tree dieback in the local Sydney Blue gums. They do this by eliminating smaller birds that remove lerp insect attack, to the trees. Mark and Barry explained that removal of vines can reduce the breeding refuge for Bell Birds. Replanting understorey shrubs and removal of invasive privet allows the smaller birds to re-populate the trees. Mark told us about the many species of truffles that inhabit the soil around our rainforest and the animal species that benefit from these, namely the Potaro and Bandicoot. Perhaps more divisive advise (for farmers) was provided about Dingoes, and how important they are as a apex predator in the landscape.

A glorious lunch was provided by the Tyringham Rural Fire Service. Sponsored by Clarence Landcare.

Local nurseryman Barry Hicks from Blue Rock Nursery provided a range of provenance species and gave advise on planting to restore biodiversity.

Lillys@Billys Farm with Barry Hicks’s beautiful range of Rainforest plants.

Deanna Fernance, from Clarence Landcare, who sponsored lunch for the event. Deanna let all know about the support individuals and groups that are volunteering their time toward NRM on private and public lands.

Simone Garwood from the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT), discussed the wide variety of grants available for farm restoration available from different organisations Australia and NSW, starting with Land for Wildlife administered by Landcare and the various  options from BCT.

Toby Grogan is a consultant with ImpactAg, an organisation that specialises in Regenerative Farming and Carbon farming and improving farms. Toby explained how his companies work improves carbon soil sequestration on large properties in Australia and overseas.

Andrew Ward (Wardy) is from Regen Farmers Mutual RFM (https://regenfarmersmutual.com/).  Wardy gave us a rundown on how RFM is a mutual or co-operative for farmers. It provides a unique system of software that provides mapping for farmers to manage their farms and environmental assets. The software is called Digital Twin, it provides a snapshot of your farms current environmental condition. It allows a farmer to plan his farm for carbon and ecological improvements. A farmer can test various scenarios to achieve Net Zero to apply for grants, loans and market his/her products. RFM is working with Clarence Council to determine how best it can assist local farmers.

Lillys@Billys farm walk

On a farm walk we examined problems and discussed solutions to Bell Bird Miner Associated Dieback, erorsion and weed control and novel crops being intoduced at Lillys@Billys.

Robert Griffith, owner of Lillys@Billys and a Landscape Agronomist discussed how he assists farmers with the Digital Twin software from Regen Farmers Mutual. Robert is a landscape designer and ecologist and can provide farmers with long term advise, he has the backing of 20 more landscape agronomists with expertise in all forms of farming as a consultant with RFM.

All up, the day was attended by over 50 people, and provided farmers and rural land-owners with options to improve their soil, and their ecological environment. The next step is to facilitate worklife balance for properties in terms options to provide sustainable products in an ecological framework.

Robert Griffith BEnvSc Hort

0468 787 071 rob@greenlook.com.au

Australian native plant for green roofs

Im a bit passionate about our unique Australian flora, particularly those that I can grow on buildings. For this reason I have been trying to track down a tough one over the past couple of years. Due to recent fires, it was particularly difficult to find one, and even when I did, all seeds were burnt off.

Well I finally found one! I was please to sow around 200 seeds, but none came up. This was quite surprising as the plant, Allocasuarina nana is from the Casurinaceae family. I would have thought would be an easy plant to propagate.

Allocasuarina nana

So I tried quite a number of methods, which for this time I will keep a secret. I have finally worked out how to make them germinate. Only very small now this hardy shrub should thrive in shallow soils. I really look forward to planting some on your roofs so I can provide habitat and biodiversity outcomes.

Garden design in rural NSW

Our family owned company has been involved in the Landscape Design and Construction business for 40 years. We have recently moved to the country and purchased a property in the North Coast hinterland. Gumbaynggir Country.

A passion for beautiful functional outdoor spaces with the environment in mind, has led our company around the world. This has enabled us to come back with new up todate technology and ideas. Our extensive experience in residential gardens, playspaces, parks, water, drought proof plantings, food, bush tucker, ecological restoration, gives a great opportunity to bring this knowledge and use it in a rural setting.

Evolvement has been involved in large scale landscape/restoration projects right down to intimate spaces. Recent works includes:

  • Residential gardens

  • Children’s playgrounds and parks

  • Vertical gardens

  • Green roofs /roof top gardens

  • Food gardens

  • Our current location gives us the opportunity to bring our company ideas to surrounding areas including Armidale, Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Grafton.

If you live in these NSW cities contact Robert on 0468 787 071 or rob@greenlook.com.au, I will be happy to help you bring your ideas to reality.

Examples of our gardens are below.

Robert’s Australian and Overseas experience has involved vegetated rooftoops and walls. He is a leader in green infrastructure technology from Europe and the USA.

Getting greenroof technology onto your roof

Installing a green roof means transporting materials vertically. Sometimes in high city locations with road traffic and poor access. Generally all green roofs require some tricky ideas to lift products. This is where Urbanscape helps as it is lightweight and provides a terrrific growing media.

Biodiversity on the farm

We were lucky to have left Sydney before Covid lockdown on the 20th of June. This gave us some time to explore our new farm on NSW north coast hinterland. We have been busy building projects in Sydney lately and had not yet explored all our block. My first exploration into the forest uncovered some unspoilt rainforest habitat. The forest has last been logged in the 60’s so there are some pretty big trees. Here are a few species I have found so far.

Apart from fun in the rainforest, we have been working hard on a couple of projects like establishing an orchard and making a garden for Murnong yam daisies.

We also met a couple of fauna species plus I just watched a couple of dingoes or wild dogs chased off by our cows.

New advanced green wall coming on nicely.

I have worked with just about every green wall system in the world over the past 15 years. Now I have found what I would say is the best system for a number of reasons. Most importantly, it will grow great plants, be easy to install, be thin on the wall and reduce maintenance costs.

Evolvement Sempergreen Wall.jpg

This greenwall is a robust long life commercial product for indoor or outdoor use.

Call Robert Griffith from Evolvement Pty Ltd on 0468 787 071 for supply with plants ready for your installation. https://evolvement.squarespace.com/products

Why not become an installer of green walls? We can train you in installation, pregrow the walls and supply all irrigation, sensors and green wall modules.

Evolvement trading as Green Look, can also install the system for you.




New Greenroof irrigation research

Evolvement was given the job to test a cost effective and zero water system for a new public building project. The idea was to trial green roofs without an irrigation system. The building in question will emit a volume of water from its air-conditioning, and this will be distributed to the roof via a wicking bed system developed by E2Designlab.

The green roof system provides a sustainable water source with zero town water. It will save the considerable cost in irrigation pipes, contollers and water. it will be maintenance free, failure will not be possible - a real plus for the green roof industry.

CLOUSTON associates, the project leads, required testing to see how the system would perform on green roofs. A variety of plants were chosen for their diversity. Two succulents, Australian native grasses and a 2 small shrub species. Plants were propagated by Evolvement Pty Ltd at their specialised green roof nursery. 5 types of green roof plots were trialled at different growing media depths with a number of replicates. Control green roof replicates provided a comparison to the wicking bed systems.

Media was provided by Benedicts Sand & Soil and Urbanscape from Knauf Insulation was included. Trials were conducted at the Evolvement research facilities in Sydney.

Growth rates and species survival were observed in the different plot types. Records of plant mass and survival were kept for a 12 month period during all seasons.

The interesting aspect of this research is that the wicking bed plots have no piped irrigation. The system is fed by normal humidity extraction from air conditioners in the building. Two types of wicking bed systems were used. One based on sand and the other on a 40mm Urbanscape Greenroll layer. Traditional drip irrigation was also used to compare performance. Plants were periodically deprived of water to check limits of their performance.

I’m pleased to say that the wicking bed systems worked extremely well and had no detrimental effect on the plants. In fact the plant roots obtained water from the wicking beds directly. When compared to control plots, wicking bed plant growth and species survival had a marked improvement.

Urbanscape wicking bed plots had similar or better results with an added advantage of minimal media depth and green roof weight. For instance, Urbanscape Greenroofs weighed 100kg/M2 less than the sand-based system. This of course means your building can be constructed with lighter and cheaper roofing systems.

Thank you Clouston and E2Design for your creative approach and the trust you gave Evolvement Pty Ltd to provide the required research.

If you want to have more information, or research on your ideas contact our specialised research team on 0468 787 071 or rob@greenlook.com.au

EVOLVEMENTLOGO.jpg

research

Here to help the green infrastructure industy

+61 468787071

Extreme green roof analysis at Western Sydney University

Here is a few videos to help explain what we are trying to achieve.

A simple and cost effective vegetative roof is finely monitored every 15 seconds in all types of weather and compared to a non vegetated roof. Scientific monitoring equipment and the web provides every available condition. I would call it Extreme green roof analysis. Reporting has been requested and supported by a number of Government agencies and is supervised by Professour Ataur Rahmon and Dr Alim at WSU.

The research aims to show a new way to provide storm water detention via your vegetated roof. We also provide useful information on a reduction of the heat island effect with vegetated roofs.

With this project Western Sydney University embodies their spirit and mission to educate, to forge new frontiers of knowledge, to share evidence and expertise, and to be the lifeblood of our local communities. It is a university of international standing and outlook, achieving excellence through scholarship, teaching, learning, research and service to local and international communities, beginning with the people of Greater Western Sydney.

Urbanscape Detention greenroof is a vegetated roof with a difference. The design enables true storm water detention which means you can dispense with your normal detention tank costs and save this space. In place you will receive a vegetated roof with all the benefits of reducing heat, saving energy costs, reducing carbon emissions, increasing biodiversity and aesthetics.

Evolvement Pty Ltd has built the Urbanscape Detention vegetated roof research project in conjunction with Green Roof Diagnostics from the USA.

Generous funding was received from sponsors including Sydney Water, Western Sydney University, Knauf Insulation, Sustainability Workshop and Blacktown Council.

Extreme greenroof analysis.jpg

Extreme green infrastructure analysis at Western Sydney University

Here is a few videos to help explain what we are trying to achieve.

A simple and cost effective vegetative roof is finely monitored every 15 seconds in all types of weather and compared to a non vegetated roof. Scientific monitoring equipment and the web provides every available condition. I would call it Extreme green roof analysis. Reporting has been requested and supported by a number of Government agencies and is supervised by Professour Ataur Rahmon and Dr Alim at WSU.

The research aims to show a new way to provide storm water detention via your vegetated roof. We also provide useful information on a reduction of the heat island effect with vegetated roofs.

Purple roof is a vegetated roof with a difference. The design enables true storm water detention which means you can dispense with your normal detention tank costs and save this space. In place you will receive a vegetated roof with all the benefits of reducing heat, saving energy costs, reducing carbon emissions, increasing biodiversity and aesthetics.

Evolvement Pty Ltd has built the Purple vegetated roof research project in conjunction with Green Roof Diagnostics from the USA.

Generous funding was received from sponsors including Sydney Water, Western Sydney University, Knauf Insulation, Sustainability Workshop and Blacktown Council.

Extreme greenroof analysis.jpg

How cost effective green roofs cool cities

Recent newspaper articles indicate that some of our cities will be unliveable in 10 years time. This might not sound a lot, but a 2°C increase from 36-38°C significantly increases the heat mortality risk of the population. People actually die.

Urban heat islands can negatively affect urban populations by directly increasing heat-induced illness and mortality [1]. From an economic perspective, heat islands increase summertime peak energy demands such as air conditioning costs [2]. Also, urban heat islands result in increased greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution [3].

As it gets hotter, the harder the air-conditioning has to work, and the more electricity they require. In a way, this is wasted energy as we could use nature-based solutions that cool our cities passively with no extra energy added.

You need to carefully design your green roof to fit your climate. A flawed design here can result in high and expensive irrigation needs, or dead plants and dead plants will not significantly help mitigate heat island effects...Please free to contact me for the design of you green roof system. Robert Griffith +61 468 787 071.

Green roof.png

What options are there?

Generally, in order to reduce heat islands, one strategy is to ensure that our outer building materials have a high so-called albedo. Albedo is a measure of how well a surface reflects energy. If a surface reflects a lot of light, it has a high albedo and looks white, whereas if the surface absorbs most of the light, it will look dark and have a low albedo. Black asphalt has a low albedo and is thus hot to walk across on a warm summer day.

The magic trick of green roofs for dissipating heat is vegetation and the evaporative cooling process coupled with the energy consumed during photosynthesis [6]. Evapotranspiration is the combined processes of evaporation and transpiration. Both processes result in evaporative cooling, the energy-requiring process in which water is transformed into its gaseous phase. The energy required is taken from the air, and so the temperature goes down. It’s essentially the same process when humans sweat to cool down.

Evapotranspiration increases with increased roof capillary capacity. The often-used well-drained soils of green roofs generally have quite low water holding capacity and water travels down preferential flow paths and macro-pore filling is low. However, materials like mineral wool (preferably phenol-formaldehyde free mineral wool) added underneath the soil layer improves macro pore space-filling and hence retention capacity significantly. This ultimately leads to better cooling due to increased evapotranspiration.

Despite the comparatively dark color of vegetated roofs and living walls, their albedo is still relatively high. Berardi et al. report albedo values of 0.7-0.85 for living roofs, which is significantly higher than the 0.1-0.2 measured for gravel, tar, or bitumen roofs. Many studies have been undertaken on how well green roofs can reduce heat island effects. One study from Hong Kong showed that grey roofs stored 75% more heat than green roofs.

Also, we should not forget that air conditioning units simply are transferring heat from the inside-to-the-outside actually exacerbating the whole heat island problem. Air-conditioners are frankly a terrible and unsustainable way to cool our indoor urban environment.

Roofs covered with a thin layer of growing media and hardy plants act similar to trees, emitting moisture and shading the area beneath. A natural air conditioner. Of course they have other benefits like saving energy costs, absorbing pollution, collecting dust whilst converting carbon dioxide into carbon. As a horticulturalist I always think of it this way; a plant generally cannot survive in temperatures over 50 degrees Celsius, our roofs in Australia typically get to 70+ in Summer. Green roofs work very well, so I can say that green roofs cannot get over 50 degrees with the aid of plants, thus reducing ambient temperatures.

The USA EPA states “Green roof temperatures can be 30–40°F lower than those of conventional roofs and can reduce city-wide ambient temperatures by up to 5°F. 1,2. In addition, green roofs can reduce building energy use by 0.7% compared to conventional roofs, reducing peak electricity demand and leading to an annual savings of $2.30 per M2 of the roof’s surface.” 4.

The Good Practice Guide to Cooling Cities representing 80 of the worlds leading cities states:

Covering a roof with a layer of vegetation that shades building materials, which would otherwise absorb heat, can reduce temperatures. Evapotranspiration provides cooling effect, as water is evaporated from the soil and plants that transpire by taking water in through roots and releasing it through leaves, a process that uses the ambient heat and consequently lowers surrounding temperatures. 5.

Green roofs will improve the building’s energy consumption and save money, but the magnitude will depend on building characteristics. Local climate, current insulation, building height, exposure to sun. Nonetheless, don’t forget that this is only one of the many benefits of vegetated roofs.

Please free to contact me for the design of you green roof system. Robert Griffith +61 468 787 071.

Measuring green roof performance?

Urbanscape by Knauf Insulation has even developed some clever software that can show your clients how much less heat will be emitted from your building. On top of this it will show energy savings and reduced water use.

Urbanscape software provides a graph showing the difference in temperature shoul you install a green roof. It is adjusted for any city in the world and your building location.

This graph shows the difference in temperature inside and outside a green roof when compared to a concrete roof in a designated location. Note that this building is set to save more than 20% of its power bills with this configeration.

This graph shows the difference in temperature inside and outside a green roof when compared to a concrete roof in a designated location. Note that this building is set to save more than 20% of its power bills with this configeration.

1. Laaidi K, Zeghnoun A, Dousset B, et al. The impact of heat islands on mortality in Paris during the August 2003 heat wave. Environ Health Perspect. 2012;120(2):254-259. doi:10.1289/ehp.1103532
2. Li X, Zhou Y, Yu S, Jia G, Li H, Li W. Urban heat island impacts on building energy consumption: A review of approaches and findings. Energy. 2019;174:407-419. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2019.02.183
3. Rao V. Effects of Urban Heat Island on Air pollution Concentrations. Int J Curr Microbiol App Sci. 2014;3(10):388-400. doi:10.1186/1742-7622-10-10

4. https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/using-green-roofs-reduce-heat-islands

5. https://c40-production-images.s3.amazonaws.com/good_practice_briefings/images/4_C40_GPG_CCN.original.pdf?1456788797

6. Hashemi SSG, Mahmud H Bin, Ashraf MA. Performance of green roofs with respect to water quality and reduction of energy consumption in tropics: A review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev. 2015;52(August 2015):669-679. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.163



Restorative ecology adventure update

Over the Christmas break Dorothy and I worked a little harder than we regularly do. We had a new farm and family guests were to arrive mid-January. Accommodation and access needed to be provided. I also wanted to carry out some basic landscaping and rainforest restoration.

A few shots of the shed before and after restoration above.

Anyway, Dorothy had in her mind to turn the old shed into suitable accommodation. She had imagined it to be stylish. I went along for the ride and we both worked very hard. In the end our work was quite sustainable in retrofitting an existing building. We installed copious Knauf insulation to reduce temperature fluctuations in summer and winter. We removed garage doors and replaced with modern glass and let lots of light into the building. Overall the shed is modern, yet eclectic. Existing log posts were covered in gyprock still showing their asymmetry. The ceilings were designed to park large bulldozers which now give us 4m high ceilings. A builder freind (Andrew Browne) told me that we really needed to install sarking fabric outside the insulation and inside the steel cladding to enable the insulation to work best. He said it would be easy to remove all the sheds corruated iron and place on the sarking. This we did, and whilst we were at it we replaced the steel on 2 sides with new black steel. This really made the building look striking. Apart from the mottled concrete floor it even has railway tracks embedded to facilitate the heavy machinery from the past. The shed remained warm at night and cool in the day. Windows give us fantastic views of the property, but we still spent lots of time in the beautiful outdoors.

Access to the site was problematic with wet clay soils. We moved around 2000 tonnes of material to create flat garden and parking areas. Stairs had to be built to the important outdoor toilet. We also built an outdoor shower with hot water, again to Dorothy’s design, and it works well.

Above Bobcat, excavator at work for erosion control and driveway installation. New plants propagated at our nursery and associated restoration works.

The family arrived and with my herpetologist son we scoured the property for reptiles, birds and marsupials. We found 5 species of frogs, 6 species of snakes, 4 types of lizards, many spiders with our head mounted torch lights at night and even a Platypus in our dam.

Above some of the species we and the Sydney University research team found

On the restoration side, we needed to do some immediate clearing around the shed to reduce the risk of fire. In the process I was surprised by the many native flora species amongst pasture and more weedy areas. I figure that I only need to give these plants a hand and restoration will be restored by nature.

During this period researchers from Sydney University also came for a field trip to check the genetics of a special lizard on site that can produce live young or is egg laying in different locations in Australia.

It is unlikely we will achieve so much in such little time again, but we both have big plans to restore this unique place into a ecological masterpiece to be enjoyed by many. Lessons from nature and new species for our urban greening business will also follow.

Landscape around the shed and overall site plan. Light green areas are pasture and purple areas are rainforest.

Much more to come……..

Robert Griffith

Rooftop Garden VS Greenroof

Of course we need more green space in our urban environments. Rooftop gardens have been around for a long time. They use valuable space to provide aesthetic and amenity for users. They provide the same functionality as gardens do on the ground. As per good garden’s they costs a considerable sum and even more with access costs to the roof. Building needs to be engineered for this purpose, usually with a minimum of 350kg/M2, with larger trees much more.

There is another alternative to consider with much lower costs and calculated ecosystem services performance.

Huf-Haus lightweight green roof design

Huf-Haus lightweight green roof design

Greenroofs can and are often built with specific purposes in mind. Stormwater management, reduced city heat and insulation are accurately calculated. Specialised software is available based on your green roof location, worldwide. They are light weight and reduce the buildings engineering costs. Greenroofs can weight as little as 60kg/M2 but commonly 100-200kg/M2. The weight needs to be calculated when fully saturated to ensure the building is designed correctly. Green roofs with their lightweight, less materials also are much cheaper to install. You can expect to cover 2-10 times the area for the same cost, they can also be installed with an instant full cover of plants.

This photo shows how you can combine a rooftop garden with a Greenroof. The upper roof is a light weight structure covered with plants. The surrounding area is a rooftop garden with seating and viewing area. This provides almost 100% green infrastru…

This photo shows how you can combine a rooftop garden with a Greenroof. The upper roof is a light weight structure covered with plants. The surrounding area is a rooftop garden with seating and viewing area. This provides almost 100% green infrastructure on this site, with the associated exosystem services of water management and cooling.

This green roof is a specialised design to provide Stormwater detention, saving additional costs of tanks.

This green roof is a specialised design to provide Stormwater detention, saving additional costs of tanks.

In Europe and the USA, Greenroofs are very popular. There has been a great deal of research into Greenroof performance. Thermal imaging, regulations that appreciate the benefits of green roofs have dramatically reduced costs for building owners. More green roofs are being built and citizens are the real beneficiary.

Greenroof systems need to provide excellent growing conditions for plants in a thin layer. System like Urbanscape are specially designed for this purpose. Plant species need to be carefully selected. Currently I am working with Western Sydney University on Stormwater management. Landscape Architect Clouston Associates has commissioned Evolvement on a unique green roof trial using air conditioning condensate to water green roofs. This saves water whilst cooling our hottest suburbs. My work developing a comprehensive plant pallet for Australia has found some interesting native plants for use in lightweight roofs too.

Australian native lightweight green roof with only 65mm Growing media over 20mm Urbanscape.

Australian native lightweight green roof with only 65mm Growing media over 20mm Urbanscape.

Installing 600M2 of 20mm Urbanscape growing media to improve performance on this light weight greenroof in Sydney.

Installing 600M2 of 20mm Urbanscape growing media to improve performance on this light weight greenroof in Sydney.

Please free to contact me for the design of you green roof system. Robert Griffith +61 468 787 071.

Restorative ecology adventure

New adventure - Dorothy and I have taken a leap of faith and purchased some land to restore its ecology and create a garden of our rural dreams. We will still be providing our services to urban green infrastructure through www.evolvement.sqsp.com and www.greenlook.com.au based in Sydney.

It took us some months to find our dream block, and we had to go a little further than we planned. Around 6 hour’s drive from our current home in Sydney was where we ended up. Its 131 acres with 50 acres of rainforest and 80 acres of pasture. The farm is located outside of Dorrigo at 800m above sea level. The rainfall is high of around 1500mm/yr, mostly in summer and its a little cooler than the nearest coast at Coffs Harbour. Temperatures can get as low as -3 Celsius in winter but overall the tropical north makes it warm and wet. Up until now the property has supported 30 cows. The pasture is in relatively good condition and has had a recent dose of lime and superphosphate. Ph of soil is currently around 7 in the pasture, not so good for endemic species. Generally soil is fantastic, basaltic and deep. Our excavator dug 3 meters deep with great soil all the way. The rainforest has high biodiversity value. Looking at the soil, I believe our farm was once covered fully in rainforest.

In terms of facilities on site there is little, bar fencing and an old large shed. I always say that the land is more important than anything else, although home comforts can be more important to some. Priorities include making the block habitable for us and visitors. Water, power, shelter and access are most important. To this end we are converting the old shed and modelling a section of land for use. From a sustainable point of view, I am happy to be remodelling and existing building. We are heavily insulating it, and my builder friend said its an easy job to pull off all the steel and place Sarking to make sure insulation works well. You Tube taught us all we need to know about cutting holes for windows and doors. We will now have great views from the shed.

We have 3 spring fed creeks and 2 large water bodies. Upstream is a vast forestry commission area. So far I have seen a Quoll (run over) Wallabies, plenty of snakes Pythons and Red Bellies, and the array of birds is magic. On trees, I have already identified 100+ species. Some incredible trees I’ve found on the property include Dysoxylum fraserianum (Rose wood) and Alloxylon pinnatum (Dorrigo Waratah).

We have a lot to learn about farms and country life. In Australia, over a beer in the pub is a good way to learn about resources, equipment and skilled people. One surprise to me was that what to me seemed to be a large piece of land, it is only capable of feeding 30 cows. Walking around the farm also soon becomes a problem, with a 3.5km fence line you can only do this once or twice in a day. The tyranny of distance makes a lot of difference in getting supplies and help too. Its early in our adventure and we have already had a hard lesson when a hire truck broke down. My advice here is to make sure you carry water everywhere, on this occasion I was very lucky to get the truck to limp into the one local shop. It was 35 degrees and we were thirsty. Mobile phones do not work everywhere and when a hire truck breaks down it is very hard to explain your predicament to a call centre overseas! Another challenge is that a piece of land like this needs a larger than average tractor, and they are very expensive.

Immediate ecological priorities - removal of a small pasture weeds like Fire weed, blackberries and Parramatta grass. Creeks have large Privet trees, up to 20 metres in height, these I will start to remove. One water body has erosion on the banks from cattle and this needs to be remedied.

We have decisions to make about what we will do but the land is tremendously productive in terms of grass and rainforest, so many horticultural endeavours are possible. Options include agistment for cows and fencing off rainforests and water bodies. Another option is to turn the whole block back to rainforest. We will also establish a large landscape garden appropriate to the climate. We also hope to establish a nursery.

After assessing the rainforest I have discovered that recent fires have given me a diverse range and abundant plant material. Millions of seedlings are sprouting and I have been madly potting them for restoration tasks. So far I have propagated a few hundreds trees for the rainforest and gardens.

Much more to come…….. and Merry Christmas to all.



Green roof DIY with Urbanscape

With a good system and technique green roofs can be installed DIY.

It has been a pleasure to work with Monique, a Sydney architect who is doing her bit to green the city and her home. Of course Monique did ensure the correct waterproofing, structural engineering and drainage was installed. Evolvement staff provided a training session and the Knauf Urbanscape system.

On this project Monique installed 20mm Urbanscape Greenroll, 50mm Green roof growing media and a coir mat and mulch. See https://evolvement.squarespace.com/greenroofs

Around 400 Evolvement Mix A and C and Mix E plants were also supplied and installed. See https://evolvement.squarespace.com/plants

Fun green roof planting day

Fun green roof planting day

The 20mm Knauf Urbanscape water saving growing media layer installed

The 20mm Knauf Urbanscape water saving growing media layer installed

Evolvement Coastal, Tropical, and Biodiversity planting mixes

Evolvement Coastal, Tropical, and Biodiversity planting mixes