If you’ve been out our way you've noticed the octagonal Garden Shed. The large south facing windows are placed to capture warmth from the Sun. An encapsulated bed of large boulders beneath the concrete slab floor are used to stabilize the temperature inside the shed. Radiant tubing was installed in the concrete floor slab as a redundant space heating system. This will give us an opportunity to experiment with both passive and active solar heating. A trellis is built in front of this window with fast growing deciduous climbers, like clematis or hops, for shade during the summer months. Part of the $50,000 grant from King County includes installing the living roof on this garden shed.

Living Roof details here. The roof was designed to accommodate the membrane lined with special soils, gravel and select plants that will filter rain water, to be stored in the nearby pond for ag use. Our living roof expert, Patrick Carey, installed a stormwater monitoring system. This allows us to begin collecting data to further study the impact of living roof systems within the natural water cycle.

Shed photo by Vince Carlson. Roof, Clayton Burrows.