Building a Green Roof Bird House

by Deltagardener

9 Materials

While visiting a garden center in Portland a couple of years ago, I came across a green roof bird house I loved. Unfortunately I couldn't take it across the border. This week Farmer Jim built me my first green roof birdhouse and I am so excited!

building a green roof bird house, container gardening, gardening, how to

This is the one I saw in Portland at Joy Creek Nursery. I love it! I knew we could come up with something similar.

After looking at numerous bird house plans online and in garden magazines, Farmer Jim came up with his own. Read the post below for links to green roof bird house plans and ideas. I love the repurposed drawer pull on the house.

Once he finished building the bird house I starting the planting area by lining it with roofing paper to keep the wood dry. Metal flashing below covered the peak of the bird house to prevent water dripping inside. Next time we may use metal flashing across the whole inside of the roof base.

I filled the planting area with good potting soil and added some organic fertilizer. We moistened the soil to prepare it for planting.

Next I placed a layer of moss over the soil to keep it moist.

Farmer Jim added 1" poultry wire to the top to keep the moss and soil in place. The 1" openings would allow me to plant easily.

It was fun planting up the roof with assorted succulents. I used a widger to poke a hole through the moss and gently pulled back the moss to insert each plant. You could also use a bamboo skewer or pencil for this part.

The roof is now planted. I placed the bird house away from direct sun to prevent the soil from drying out while the plants take time to establish. Succulents are so easy to propagate. Tiny roots will take hold in no time.

Once the plants are growing I will move this green roof bird house to a fence post in the garden. I may even paint a few designs on it. After all it needs a bit of colour. We are already looking at a new design for our next green roof bird house. After all, he has so much scrap lumber to use up!

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Scrap lumber (repurposed)
Moss (garden center)
1" poultry wire (Hardware store)
Potting soil (Garden center)
Succulents (my garden)
Metal flashing (Hardware store)
Roofing material (Hardware store)
Wood screws (Hardware store)
Drawer pull (repurposed)

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3 comments

Hannah V on Jun 13, 2016
This is seriously such an awesome idea! Love it!

1 Reply
Alice Gatto on Jun 13, 2016
Thanks for this one. Great idea, I'm sending to my husband. He has been looking for some new birdhouse ideas.

Like Reply
- Deltagardener on Jun 13, 2016
  @Alice Gatto My hubby liked making them once he figured out the pattern for them. we have lots of trees and the birds love to nest here so hopefully they will use this bird house. We asked a bird expert about what hole sizes to use and found out some shouldn't have perches as larger birds can sit and get the eggs.
  
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