SPL Shelf Life [adult]

This review appeared in the Stratford Gazette on August 11, 2011. Written by Robyn Godfrey, Librarian.


Small Green Roofs: Low-Tech Options for Greener Living By Nigel Dunnett, Dusty Gedge, John Little and Edmund C. Snodgrass
@SPL: 635.9671 Sma

Green roofing is an ever-growing movement (pun intended). Not only visually appealing and environmentally friendly, building a green space on roof-tops has added benefits: creating noise insulation, providing wildlife habitat, managing rainwater, conserving energy, cooling one’s home, and providing local produce, among others. Weather on a city skyscraper or your garden shed, a bus-stop roof or your garage, the scope for greening small surfaces is as large as your own imagination. Think of the reduced smog days if there were green roofs in every neighbourhood and city centre – cities like Toronto would look actually look green from a distance, not muddy brown. In China, small herb and produce gardens are planted atop low building entran

ces, where locals are invited to “cut and come again”. The authors show the results of many successful projects (even in places that get winter snow), outline the steps to design and create green roofs on nearly any surface, and they provide a list of plants that take to green roofing easily. Their passion is certainly clear - to make it easy to get started the authors also provide a sections on design principles, planting styles and types (i.e. ornamental versus edible) plenty of glossy photos to inspire, a list of websites and books for further reading or research, and of course, that hand-dandy index as a quick finding tool. Check out the sections on green-roofing spaces like bicycle-sheds and birdhouses, and on community projects – I smell a Communities-in-Bloom-winning-strategy (pun intended)!