The Bret Harte Retirement Inn in downtown Grass Valley has something new that few buildings have: a rooftop garden.

On Dec. 11, the retirement home had a thick grassy layer rolled out on its second-floor roof. The rooftop garden has 13 species of low-growing succulents - plants with thick fleshy leaves and stems, said Bucky Wilcox, sales manager of Neptune Coatings, the Grass Valley company that oversaw the project.

"I like it (the rooftop garden) very much," said Dorothy Mitchell, owner of the retirement home.

"It gives a nice, green natural look (to the roof)."

Mitchell is especially excited about the new patch of greenery as a number of apartments in the building look out on the roof.

"When it was just a regular roof, the leaves would blow out on it and it would get dirty," she said. "So I figured out this would be a good option."

The 650-square-foot garden took two hours to be installed, Wilcox said. A few days before it was laid, the roof was waterproofed with "wet suit" - an white rubber roofing material.

"Wet suit provides the benefits of a seamless, thus longer-lasting roofing system," Wilcox said. "The living roof (the rooftop garden) extends the life of the wet suit 200 to 300 percent.

"This is because the living roof provides so much insulation. It keeps the rooftop cool in summer and warm in winter."

This summer, the plants on the rooftop garden will bloom, Wilcox said. When summer ends, the plants will reseed themselves, he added.

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To contact Staff Writer Soumitro Sen, e-mail soumitros@theunion.com or call 477-4229.