why rising earth?

The title of this blog draws from my time as an apprentice at the Cob Cottage Company in costal Oregon. If you spend time with natural building folk, you'll eventually find yourself around a fire, sing silly songs about cob and natural building. Folks usually refer to these oftentimes improvised tunes as "cobsongs". I often sang..."There is a house in old coquille, they call the rising earth, it's been the work of many hands, and you know what that's worth..."

Friday, July 21, 2017

Green/Living Roof




Here are photos from a visit to the community pavilion at Heart Song in Ulster Co. This is the first time I've seen the green roof after installation and I'm thrilled to see it so happy and green! The soil is is about 4" deep and is a mixture of top soil and dry straw. We seeded with lots of wildflowers and were fortunate to have a rainy spring. We built last year but waited until spring to add soil to roof, so plants could grow and stabilize the loose soil to prevent erosion. Worked great!