Intensive Versus Extensive Roof Garden

Intensive garden roof assembly.

Intensive versus extensive roof garden. Extensive roof gardens are lighter cheaper and shallower. Another term for these green roofs is rooftop garden intensive green roofs require more maintenance because of the plant varieties they will support. The landscape possibilities with an intensive garden roof assembly are virtually limitless. Vegetative roofs are divided into two categories.

The plants that are mostly used on extensively planted roofs include grasses mosses herbs and succulents. An extensive green roof is characterized by a thinner layer of soil and smaller plants. There are two general types of green roofs. 1 extensive vegetative roofs which are 6 inches or shallower and are frequently designed to satisfy specific engineering and performance goals and 2 intensive vegetative roofs which may become quite deep and merge into more familiar on structure plaza landscapes with promenades lawn large perennial plants and trees.

The intensive green roof uses planting mediums that have greater depth than the extensive green roof. Intensive gardens are heavier and more expensive. Their depth can range up to 2 feet or more depending on the weight constraints of the roof. The distinction is based on the kind of plant involved.

If you increase that planting depth by a foot or two though a whole new realm of possibility opens up. Intensive green roofs weigh from 35 pounds to beyond 100 pounds per square foot when dry it is all a matter of the soil depth which is affected by the amount of mounding that is used. However the gardendrain component has a taller profile and is filled with expanded aggregate to provide greater water storage and to support a greater depth of growing. Intensive includes a thick layer of soil that can support large vegetation such as small trees.

Intended for recreational sporting and leisure purposes they are often indistinguishable from at grade landscapes. For existing homes glazer recommends the extensive roof garden. Intensive vs extensive a green roof comes in two varieties. This deeper soil allows intensive roofs to accommodate large plants and dramatic plant groupings.

Intensive planting there are two ways of planting a roof. Green roofs with more than 6 inches of media are considered intensive. An intensive assembly follows the same design concept as an extensive assembly. A semi intensive green roof can give rise to a richer ecology with more diverse plant and animal species.

It also allows for a formal garden to be installed with paths grass lawn and flowers or pot plants. Typically extensive green roofs strive for environmental benefits cooling and stormwater management prime among them over human amenity space. Typically these roofs will have more soil and some small shrubs as well as the low growing wildflowers and sedums found on an extensive roof.