Friday 5 July 2013

My rooftop garden

And now for something slightly different: A couple of months ago, I moved house, from a place with no outdoor space whatsoever, to a place with a sizable roof terrace. I'm very excited about this, and have been gardening like mad! I have a mix of herbs, vegetables and flowers (whereby I tried to pick good flowers for bees), and most of my containers (as well as my garden furniture :D) was either found or re-used from other stuff. Just some pics to show you what I've been up to:



Making a pallet garden

Filling the pallet with earth

...and planting the first plants: thyme, strawberries, lavender and echinacea


The pallet in its vertical position, after giving the plants a week to settle in horizontal position. I added some flowering plants, cat grass (in a bid to keep my two furry monsters away from the rest of the plants :-)), various kinds of lettuce, and planted land cress, garden cress and coriander seeds.

The bean box, built from the wood of an old Ikea futon frame

The pallet plants growing



...and adding irrigation pipes (old curtain rails with holes drilled in them) when watering the pallet proved tricky




The emergence of the snow peas




Box built from shelves of a disused Ikea shelving unit, filled with tomatoes and indian cress



...and the terrace today :-)



You can't see it too well here, but my honeysuckle is growing enthusiastically. Also in the pot are rosemary and lavendar, and in the pot next to it are indian cress, mint, and a courgette plant - unfortunately, I think the courgette has Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus, and I'll have to take it out as it's unlikely to produce much :(


Under the second pallet, the rucola has blossomed (after I got to use loads of it in pastas and salads) - once it goes to seed, I'll try to harvest and save it for next year.