Welcome back to Garden Ninja, today I'm going to be fitting greenery to a shed that
have been supplied with some green with materials for green roofs direct I'm going
to show you my speedy guide how you can convert a garden shed to something both
beautiful and environmentally friendly so come on let's get cracking!
So the sedum I'm using today here has been supplied by green roofs direct and
they're an Irish company that specialized in green rooms and they have
done from the last 30 years the reason why we have chosen them is that their Sedum is super tough
because its been exposed to the sea and its really hardy. It's had that hardening off period where some other types of Sedum
may have been grown under glass or propagated in a protected environment
and when you're putting them out they're go into shock it's really not the best
when your putting a green roof on so their super tough they've been doing it for
years and the Sedum album is gonna be ideal be ideal to withstand the conditions of
an exposed shed on this plot.
So before we do anything we need to fit the frame around the roof of the shed that's
about three centimeters taller than the actual roof out because this will be the
box that substrate and the Sedum sits on keep it protected and stopping it blowing off
Measure twice cut once you, measure the outside of your sheds to create the box
that again is three centimeters higher than the roof so I'm going to do that
So I've measured my timber frame and just drilled my pilot holes what I'm gonna do
now is taking these galvanized decking screws secure this frame
so you can use a pond liner but I'm using this really thick plastic I'm gonna use
a two ply so I've got a staple gun and I'm gonna pin it to the edge of this
lip here so the waterproof layer is now been attached to the roof of the shed
and the next stage is to put the front lip and the very front of the shed and
then move on to the protective fleece. So what I'm going to do now is put this
root proof felting on what this does is it protects the roof from the roots of the
Sedum so you put this on top of your to water proof membrane and it means that it
prevents the roots from getting through basically allows it to sit on top not
root through the roof put this on now and then apply the substrate the
substrate layer is a free draining mix as you can see here sort of sand and
inert materials such as rocks and grit and what that will allow is for the
Sedum to root into that substrate to get its moisture from there and to also
anchor the Sedum and once it starts to take it's really important and I'm going
to put about a two centimeter layer in that tray on top of the fleece and then
move on to the final part which is unrolling that Sedum blanket. Now always
take care when lifting the substrate because it is quite heavy so my advice
would be if you're not as strong as a garden ninja get a friend to help you
and lift it up one bag at a time and then open it on the roof I'll turn it
simply you can pour it into a bucket take it up in stages which is probably
the easiest method. So I'm gonna take it now spread this out so the easiest way
to get this on is to lift it onto the roof split the bag and then using a rake
spread it out over the roof but be careful if you use the sharp end you can
pierce the waterproof membrane so my top tip to use the backside it's a bit
slower then you want to rake it out until it's about two centimetres in
depth
So the Sedum I'm going to use today is here and it's Sedum album it's
beautifully green and has year round colour it's also super hardy and we'll go down
to conditions of minus 25. It's also really drought resistance if you
have a really baking hot summer it's not just gonna keel over and crisp up and
it's ideal for thin poor soils so it makes an excellent form of Sedum for a
green roof. Now unroll these blankets give it a good soaking and I'm ready to
start to get them on top of the green roof and the timber frame that I've just
constructed. So now that I've got the substrate up on the roof and the Sun is
out I'm now going to re-roll one of these blankets of Sedum simply for ease
of getting up the ladder on top and you want to try and keep your pieces in as
larger section as possible and putting them out like turf you don't want lots
of bits stuck together because the edges dry out and it's difficult to take so
keep them as big as possible but only insofar as it you can lift them up or
get a friend so going to roll this and pop it on top
So there we have it how to fit your very own green roof on top of you said this
green roof was supplied by green roofs direct who are excellent this quality
of Sedum is second to none so I've got no problem with knowing that this is
going to take but I am gonna water it twice a week for the first couple of
weeks until I see new growth if you've liked this video why not subscribe to my
youtube channel for more garden design tips mints
I've been Garden Ninja I'm off for a brew to get down up these ladders happy
gardening!