Packing a green roof with solitary bees
Packing a green roof with solitary bees doesn’t just rely on the species mix. Of course a good range of wildflowers and sedums is one key ingredient of a good green roof for pollinators. The other is a place to nest. And this what GRC always aim to do.
View of the roofs and walls at Regent’s Place London
GRC Green Roof and Habitat Wall Design
GRC has a track record of designing and specifying green roofs in London. When we commission by Lendlease Ltd to try and pack as much ‘green’ into a small inverted roof outside their new offices. The L shaped roof was designed to have a long green roof designed for biodiversity on the leg of the L. This followed the Buglife Guidance GRC helped to write. THe body of the L consisted of seating with food growing areas for staff and climbers for pollinators.
Marking out the solitary bees and their nests
The largest bee hotel on a roof in the world
The two habitat walls designed for solitary bees were placed on south facing walls in proximity to the biodiverse green roof and the food growing area. A Bug Club was set up by staff to monitor the roofs and the activities of the bee hotels. With so many holes we were sure that solitary bees from around the neighbourhood would certainly find both the roofs and the habitat walls.
Green roof and habitat wall
Analyse of the photographs this spring identified over 900 of the holes had been made use of by a variety of bees. We are not sure which solitary bees sued them but it is likely that leaf cutter and mason bees were the main residents.
The important thing here is that you can install a green roof but all to often in a city like London netting habitat for bees is too far away for the solitary bees. They like to forage within 600mm of of their nests. We have now installed a number of bee hotels on London’s green roofs designed and provided by Green Roof Shelters.
We were recently there to do a talk and to celebrate the habitat wall.
Dusty Gedge is international speaker at conferences, events and public lectures. For more information contact GRC
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