Small Green Roofs

This collaboration by four enthusiastic experts demystifies the process of planning, designing, installing, and maintaining green roofs. Dunnett (landscape dept., Univ. of Sheffield), with Dusty Gedge (founder, livingroofs.org), John Little (Grass Roof Company), and Edmund C. Snodgrass (Emory Knoll Farms & Green Roof Plants, Street, MD), discusses roof design, plant selection, growing media, weight loads, and other practical considerations and extols the benefits of living roofs. Bountifully illustrated and brimming with stimulating information and ideas, this guide, which claims to be the first book to focus on small-scale domestic green-roof projects, fills a niche on the gardening shelf and nicely achieves its objective to be "both inspiring and practical." More than half of the book is devoted to engaging profiles of creative and unique green-roof projects, including sheds, garages, houses, small structures, and community projects, undertaken around the world, including Dunnett's own garden sheds. Sidebars add context and perspective.