USERS of the new park and ride at Petersfinger, on the Southampton Road side of Salisbury, may have noticed the swathe of green on the roof of the waiting area. The roof has been planted with sedums to create a ‘living’ roof, as has part of the roof at the newly-refurbished Wiltshire Council offices in Bourne Hill.

Sedums are commonly used for green roofs because they are wind, frost and drought resistant, and need very little maintenance, important if the roof is not easily accessed. But they are not the only plants you can use for a green roof as I discovered when I met up with wildlife consultant Dusty Gedge when he visited the Oxford Green Roofs stand at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show last week.

Dusty has been instrumental in promoting green roofs in the United Kingdom and campaigns constantly for a living roof policy in London. His designs grace buildings as diverse as the Komodo Dragon House at London Zoo and Barclays headquarters in Canary Wharf.

He is also the pioneer of the so-called ‘brown’ roofs, a term he would like to change. “If I could kill the term brown roof I would. They are species and flora rich habitats and I prefer to think of them as biodiversity roofs.”

By covering flat roofs of new developments with a layer of locally sourced material, gravel, rubber or spoil, they quickly become colonised by insects thereby providing important feeding sites for insect feeding birds.

There is also a ‘brown’ roof at the new Wiltshire council offices at Bourne Hill which will soon become a wildlife habitat as well as reducing rainwater run-off.

For domestic buildings, green roofs are suitable for sheds, outhouses, log stores, bike sheds or small extensions. Basically, these are buildings where access can be gained, because if you want to attract the greatest biodiversity to your roof, planting native wild flowers will not only give you colour from spring to autumn, but will also give plenty of insects something to feed on.

The shed roof on the stand at Hampton Court had been planted with a wildflower turf containing 30 different wild flowers ranging from ox-eye daisies, yellow rattle, red campion to bird’s foot trefoil and thrift, and looked stunning. In October, when everything has died back, the wildflower roof must be cut back, otherwise it will die and compost. But next spring, it will regrow. As plants need soil, and the roof will need waterproofing, some buildings may need to be reinforced to take the extra weight.

You can find out more about green roofs by visiting livingroofs.org