Redding Library’s rooftop garden feels messy and half dead.
The overgrown clumps of grasses in shades of blue to yellow, dandelions and small patches of weeds have turned one of the building’s green attractions into an eyesore.
“With our extreme weather, there have been struggles,” said Paul Anderson, Redding parks superintendent. “We need to plant material up there that is drought-resistant, heat-resistant and sun-reflective-window-resistant.”
Indeed the heat is responsible for the plant stress, but the budget cuts also have proven to be deadly to the garden.
City officials are asking volunteers with the Shasta College and University of California Master Gardeners to come up with a new design for the green roof.
“We’re not looking for anything fancy,” Anderson said. “We’re looking for something that is manageable, simple and creates a visual interest.”
The gardeners will put their ideas together over the next few weeks and present their recommendations to city officials, who will then price out the designs and select one.
Anderson said the plan is to replant on the 40-by-160-foot garden no later than spring.
There’s a chance the city might call for a community-work day to take on the task.
Jan Erickson, library director, did not return a call for comment on Tuesday.
The master gardeners had no involvement with the original garden. A professional group designed it with native grasses — the idea being that it would require minimum care and keep feeding birds away.
Leimone Waite, a full-time horticulture instructor at Shasta College and master gardeners’ coordinator, remembered the garden thriving those first three years after the new building opened to the public in March 2007.
More recently, it has not gotten the maintenance it needs, and the city’s gardener also is dealing with birds that drop seeds that don’t belong in the garden.
Among seedlings removed are pines, palms and cottonwood.
“It was a good design, but it was not sustainable,” said Philip Baldwin, project coordinator with the master gardeners, speaking of the challenges the library has had properly maintaining and watering the plants.
The garden has eight inches of soil and initially had a subterranean irrigation system, which was reaching only some areas, while leaving other spots dry.
Reflection from the massive windows on the second floor that look out on the garden were baking the plants during summer. The survivors are tufts of blue fescue and deer grass. In the midst of the mopey grasses also are the blue-green leaves of the California poppy.
Designs are barely in the early stages, but the garden is likely to take a simple, minimalist approach, similar to the looks of an Asian garden.
The native plants theme will be retained, just in smaller quantities and more spread out to give each one emphasis.
“We want it come become a teaching place where people can point and say, ‘What is that?’ That is native deer grass,” Baldwin said.
The plants will not show from the ground floor.
Baldwin and Waite see the prospect of generating interest in native plants and even rooftop gardens.
The gardeners are careful to stress they are not experts on rooftop designs, and all they can do is provide the city with sound advice after doing their research.
“It’s not like planting a garden bed in front of the library,” noted Waite, whose group needs to consider weight and drainage in its recommendations.
Baldwin said his reasons for becoming involved with the design are personal.
“The library is so beautiful. We want to do our part,” he said. “It is a matter of civic pride.”
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