Nothing’s growing just yet, but I have plans! Here are the seeds that arrived a few weeks ago. I plan to start these seeds in mid to late March. I’ll start enough to share with Erin, and I’ll offer other neighbors in case anyone else wants.
- Roma tomatoes will be for making tomato paste. It worked well with the left over cherries I had last year, so I’m hoping that using actual paste tomatoes will be better.
- Sweet peas are adorable and crunchy and tasty. Should be able to eat the whole pod.
- Mexican gherkins are the size of a large grape, have the coloring of a watermelon, and taste like a cross between a lemon and a crunchy cucumber. I’m exited to try them.
- The flowers were sent along with the others, not sure what I’ll do with them. Butterflies would be great, but I don’t know how many of them I’ve seen up there in the past.
A roof update. The garden right now is in total disarray. The deck is temporarily gone, as we needed to have the roof itself redone. We had water leaking into units on the top floor earlier, but now it is repaired. The deck, however….chaos. We should wind up with a much nicer looking space with deck boards that don’t pop up in random places and hurt us. That would be super. Have no idea when it’ll be done. They say before the spring…the original plan was to finish by early November. Didn’t quite happen!
We had to move everything, EVERYTHING, away from the main area, and my neighbors and I were able to do that except for the tanks. After the massive January snow storm and subsequent rains, the tanks were too heavy to move anywhere, so they’re kind of tucked away in the least convenient place. Anyway, I had to toss my two compost buckets, which upset me greatly, and move all of the pots downstairs to a nook in one of the stairwells. I’m guessing most of the herbs in tera cotta pots will die. I’ll find out in another week or two when I work up the nerve to check on them. Also tossed the tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets. They were dead, and the buckets were cracked all over.
But, looking forward to this spring, I’m going to get a bunch of 10 gallon garbage cans from Restaurant Depot and use them for tomatoes, gherkins, and peas. Drill holes in the bottom, lava rock for drainage, two 6′ stakes for support per bucket. The tanks will be again for peppers, cucumbers, beets, and carrots. I’ll be rotating some of the plant placements in the tanks, too. I’ll start a new compost bin as well.
I’ll have to wait until this snow stops, though!
Roof Garden Gal 