Tuesday, June 01, 2010

This Year's Rooftop Garden

So my rooftop garden is up and running again. I'm not planting any Don Knotts this year like I did last year, but I *did* convert my old papasan frame into an herb garden, so hopefully that makes up for it.

Why not join me on a tour?

This is kind of the skyline view of my rooftop garden. Thankfully now that everything's potted, the pots have stopped toppling over the edge of the roof. In the foreground you can see my ladybug sandbox that I garbage-picked, the lid of which the cats sleep under on hot days and stalk birds from (unsuccessfully)...



And in closeups...

Black-seeded simpson lettuce, lavender, grape tomato plant, Zooey:



A couple heirloom tomato plants, more lettuce, wildflowers, moonflowers, mint, and green onions:



This is what my cats and I refer to as "the stink pipe" which is the pipe connected to my downstairs neighbor's toilet. As you can see, my goal is to camouflage it a bit (and discourage the cats from sniffing in it all the time)... Planted here is catnip, leeks, chives, basil, wildflowers, and a jalapeno plant.



This is my newest addition to my rooftop garden: my papasan herb garden. It's made from an old papasan frame and some landscaping fabric. The white twine leading out of it and up onto the doorframe is going to (hopefully) allow the peas to climb. In it: basil, cilantro, chives, green onions, black-seeded simpson lettuce, and peas. Fran is a big fan of the shade it produces, as you can see.







And finally: a small portion of the 36 basil plants I have growing. Yes, I am ridiculous. And yes, I love me some basil.



Stay tuned for more tales of urban gardening as the season progresses!

12 comments:

  1. Hahaha... I like how you are trying to prevent the cats from sniffing the "stink-pipe" by surrounding it with catnip.

    You have SO MUCH STUFF. And the papasan frame is brilliant. I'm doing my first garden ever this year, in a community garden plot that's all my own. Love reading about your gardening adventures :)

    (I've been reading for a long time but I don't think I've come out of the woodwork before... *waves* hi!)

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  2. Well done. Thanks for the inspiration. Would love to hear about some vegan recipes you made that came from your garden!

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  3. Lucky you! JOb well done!

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  4. Thanks everyone!

    Jim: I'll def try to post some esp once I get some tomatoes going in a few months.

    VegetariRun: I only have so much stuff cuz of the dollar store. Started picking up pots there once in a while and then also snagged a bunch of unused ones from our backyard. Plus everything but the tomatoes and lavender is from seed, so that cuts down on costs as well. =)

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  5. Anonymous11:27 AM

    And here I threw away a perfectly good broken papasan just a while ago I could've used for the same thing. :(

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  6. Hi I tried growing things on my balcony last year with little success. I've started a few things again from seed and am waiting for it to be warm enough to put them outside. Seeing that you like to grow basil, do you have any tips so I get more than a few leaves this year? Thank you

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  7. I am so jealous of your awesome garden! i could definitely dig in to some of that basil :)

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  8. What a great garden! Your so inventive. I love the anti-stink pipe thing you got going on. Enjoy that basil.

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  9. Shirley: does your balcony have direct sunlight for most of the day or no? That makes a huge difference.

    I recommend the following sources though:

    Garden Anywhere by Alys Fowler. Lots of good tips on growing out of pots and on balconies and the like:

    http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Anywhere-Alys-Fowler/dp/0811868753

    Also, a friend just sent me the link to this website, and I think it might be of use to you as well:

    http://lifeonthebalcony.com/

    Best of luck to you!!

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  10. wow! I'm lovin the creative way to grow a garden! Never seen this before, it's really cool :) esp the papasan one!

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  11. Anonymous2:26 PM

    I am so jealous of your rooftop garden! Lovely. I am with you on the basil--yum!

    Courtney

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  12. Anonymous3:44 PM

    I love the idea of using the black landscaping fabric in the papasan chair! I bought a plastic baby pool this year with having my own personal lamo swimming pool on my deck but it has not quite panned out and so I have been trying to figure out how to repurpose it into a garden without having the icky (poison?) plastic touch the herbs and landscape stuff would work great!

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