These photos are for my friend Kim, who collapses with laughter at the mere thought of me rototilling the roof. Had to rent a large tiller and get used to handling it without falling off the edge.

We needed to till a couple of inches deep in order to be able to plant the grass (though at this point anything with roots is allowed to live to prevent erosion). We planted a special variety of Buffalo grass known as Cody, which was developed by the Univ. of Nebraska. It likes full sun, little water when established, and only grows 2-4 inches high, which is perfect, since I do not intend to own a lawnmower. The grass is now up, though it spends most of its time developing roots at the outset. I may plant annual rye for the first year to help control erosion. I think any earth sheltered buyer/builder needs to plan from the outset to control erosion, since it will be a problem no matter where you build. Fortunately we back into the hill, so the main problem is only on the two sides behind the retaining wing walls.