Intensive Versus Extensive Roof Garden

There are two general types of green roofs.

Intensive versus extensive roof garden.

The landscape possibilities with an intensive garden roof assembly are virtually limitless. Extensive roof gardens are lighter cheaper and shallower. This deeper soil allows intensive roofs to accommodate large plants and dramatic plant groupings. The distinction is based on the kind of plant involved.

The plants that are mostly used on extensively planted roofs include grasses mosses herbs and succulents. 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. Intensive gardens are heavier and more expensive. Typically extensive green roofs strive for environmental benefits cooling and stormwater management prime among them over human amenity space.

An intensive assembly follows the same design concept as an extensive assembly. For existing homes glazer recommends the extensive roof garden. Intensive vs extensive a green roof comes in two varieties. 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.

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. Another term for these green roofs is rooftop garden intensive green roofs require more maintenance because of the plant varieties they will support. Vegetative roofs are divided into two categories. Their depth can range up to 2 feet or more depending on the weight constraints of the roof.

Intensive green roofs. Green roofs with more than 6 inches of media are considered intensive. Intensive includes a thick layer of soil that can support large vegetation such as small trees. Intensive planting there are two ways of planting a roof.

A semi intensive green roof can give rise to a richer ecology with more diverse plant and animal species. Intended for recreational sporting and leisure purposes they are often indistinguishable from at grade landscapes. 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. The intensive green roof uses planting mediums that have greater depth than the extensive green roof.

Intensive garden roof assembly. Intensive systems allow the designer to create a park like setting so they are the best option for roof gardens that will be occupied. Intensive green roofs commonly thought of as garden roofs are the more complex of the two exhibiting much greater plant diversity and a greater need for design expertise says peck.