The Berry Prairie has a tannish-tone to it these days. One of the big issues in the original roof was that the black growing medium (the fake dirt) absorbed so much of the intensive, high-elevation sun that it was very, very hot on a regular basis. The plants did not seem to care for this much, so we've tried to tackle this problem through two different solutions:
1. Pop-up irrigation. The cool water coming from above (rather than below as with the drip in the previous edition) will help cool all layers of the growing medium.
2. Light-colored mulch. We used a "rose" colored, 3/8" pea gravel spread 1" deep all over the roof. This lighter color will help prevent so much absorption and look/act more like a native prairie with their light-colored soils.
1. Pop-up irrigation. The cool water coming from above (rather than below as with the drip in the previous edition) will help cool all layers of the growing medium.
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| Photo from Sept. 19 |
2. Light-colored mulch. We used a "rose" colored, 3/8" pea gravel spread 1" deep all over the roof. This lighter color will help prevent so much absorption and look/act more like a native prairie with their light-colored soils.
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| You can see the difference in color between the tan pea gravel (right and top of image) and the darker growing medium (left of image) |
Written by Brenna Marsicek, UW Biodiversity Institute
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