This spring, Kate and Brent Halfwassen plan to build a storage shed with a green roof behind their 1,600-square-foot 1890 Victorian home in Riverwest. Because the roof is level with an adjacent slope and can hold 165 pounds per square foot, it will double as a play space.
“A lot of the homes in Riverwest are like that and can do something similar. Kids could look at it as a tree house and parents as a greenhouse,” Kate Halfwassen says.
Benefits of green roofs include reduced stormwater runoff, better heat insulation and reduced greenhouse gases through the plantings. But the Halfwassens also believe that the garden roof reclaims a slice of the urban landscape and serves up a chance to practice sustainable agriculture in an unlikely spot in an unlikely locale. (more…)
