Roof Garden on A Garden Shed

The garden shed is beautiful thanks to this roof garden. It’s a must have especially if you have a thin zinc roof. Not only does it look beautiful, it also helps keep the temperature inside always cool and the loud sound of rain hitting zinc away.

I’ve experimented with different plants and have come to the conclusion that the Japanese roses were the easiest plants for my roof garden. If there was a hot spell with little rain, the garden dried out but when the rains came back, they regrew beautifully.

The How To

  • Constructing The Shed

    Even though the garden shed is small an extra ceiling beam is placed in the middle as this roof will bear extra weight from the soil.

  • Side View

    The wall are coming up nicely.

  • Preparing the Roof

    The roof has raised sides that will act as our planting box. The HDPE liner is laid down. The liner protects the zinc from rusting and the soil from escaping through the gaps between our zinc roof and the side box.

  • HDPE liners installed

    2 narrower layers were used only because that was what we already had on hand from the dry river we had made. You can use one large liner if available.

  • The Rain Gutter

    The rain gutter is installed slighly below to planting box to allow water to flow down to it.

  • The Filter

    A standard aquarium sponge filter is cut to size and will be used as a filter.

  • Installing The Filter

    The filter runs parallel to the rain gutter and will stop the soil and other debris from depositing into the rain gutter.

  • Coco Peat

    Coco peat is placed first before the soil because it is lightweight, retains water well and nutrient rich.

  • Grass

    Once the coco pea and soil was placed, grass was planted. Over time, I realised that grass was not the easiest to maintain as it needed frequent watering and cutting.

  • Close Up

    The liner is trimmed and stapled to the wood. The filter placed between the grass and the box border.

  • View From The Top

    Enjoying the view of the house and garden from the roof garden after cutting the grass.

  • Planting Marigolds

    I decided to try marigolds. They added colour to the rooftop.

  • 2 Months Later

    Some made it and some didn’t. With some care, marigolds can work.

  • Little Rain

    Over a few years, there would be times when the weather was very hot. This made most of the plants dry out as the roof garden was without a watering system at this point and the plants on it were relying only on rainwater.

  • It regrew

    This is what the rooftop looks like without any intervention, maintenance or watering