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More and more homeowners are seeing green – on their rooftops.

"It's very drought tolerant and freeze tolerant as well, so while the plants may die back in a severe drought, they'll come back as they start getting water again," said Matthew Perry with Building Logics of Va. Beach.

Green roofs are a growing trend.

Building Logics is leading the way, having completed projects in Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, California, Idaho, Colorado and many East Coast states.

Biology students at Virginia Wesleyan College recently did a small test project on greens roofs. "We wanted to not just look at run off quantity, the amount of water, but also water quality - what are green roofs doing to water quality," Maynard Schaus, a biology professor at Va. Wesleyan.

The result was savings for the college and the environment. "Most rain storms over half the water was captured by the roof and in many cases 90 percent or more was captured by the roof, so that's a benefit," explained Schaus.

The roof's multi-layer design, with four inches of shale soil and cactus-like plants, not only absorbs rain water but acts as a filter for water that can't be absorbed.

In June 2005, The McElroys of Norfolk decided to replace their leaking roof with a green roof. "The more we looked at it, it was environmental and it was going to save us money and it was beautiful," explained Ruth McElroy.

It cost more, about 30 percent more than a traditional roof, but they love it and saw immediate savings.

"We saw about a $25 dollar drop in our first month’s (energy) bill," noted Ruth.

The family expects to save more money down the road because green roofs should last more than 40 years, several times longer than most roofs.

The McElroys admit it's not conventional and they are often asked how they mow their roof.

“We tell people that we have a goat up here that keeps it trimmed," she said.

Ruth McElroy says the the entire family enjoys the green roof.

"We love sitting in the office and looking out instead of having a flat black tar roof we look out and see flowers and butterflies and bees and plants," said McElroy. "I feel like by making small steps like this we are going to have a better environment to hand off to the next generation and I hope we can."

By the way, the Virginia Wesleyan test project was so successful that one of the college dorms is going green.