The Great Outdoors, a plant nursery located on South Congress Ave., installed GreenPaks, from the Green Roof Block company in Missouri, on one of their buildings. This modular green roof system uses polyethylene fabric bags pre-filled with a growing medium. Each bag is 20 inches by 32 inches, totaling 4.5 square feet of coverage, and weighs 11 lbs dry and a maximum of 17 lbs saturated. After delivery and layout, openings are cut in the bags and they are planted with plugs or cuttings. On this project, the bags were laid directly on a sloped asphalt-shingled roof and planted with sedums, sempervivum, and other assorted plants in dappled shade under a large live oak tree. Together, the supplier of the bags and the nursery are planning to monitor the performance of this system for a few years, experimenting with various plant species. If successful, Great Outdoors may sell the bags pre-filled with a soil that they engineer.
