Ray's Top Maintenance Tips

Ray is the head of Green Roofs Direct, and as you can imagine he’s very passionate about growing sedum.  It’s important to point out that your roof will stay alive and survive without any maintenance – but if you’re looking for the best roof on the street, it really only takes a couple of afternoons per year to keep your green roof in tip top condition:

Don’t be scared to cut it back.
Give you a roof a good cut back once a year with shears – either hand or electric is fine.  We usually advise to cut the roof down by around 50% and do this at the end of September.  Don’t throw away the sedum you have cut – distribute them onto your roof and each trimming can re-root and turn into a new little sedum plant.  Nature is amazing and literally regenerates from itself.

Trim the flowers off.
Cutting off the flowers signals the sedum to grow more – this is best done during late summer.  If you want an extra full mat, once you have enjoyed the flowers, it is best to trim them off.

Check for weeds.
The sedum leaves our site weed free, but if you want it to stay this way over a long period of time you will need to check it a couple of times each year.  It is best to remove the weeds when they are very young, and not let them spread. Remember weeding is a lot simpler on a green roof (compared with a traditional garden space) as the shallow depth of substrate stops most weeds from developing.