Brooklyn Roof Garden Tilling the tar beach

Here’s a look at our garden from this morning: Our first rose is blooming! See it just to the right of the Adirondack chair? As the trees leaf out, they hide a bit of our view.

RP built our potting bench early this spring and tricked it out with some hooks and lights.

Most of the seeds in our veg trug have sprouted. This is our first year trying to grow vegetables from seed. Arugula seems to be the fastest, easiest grower. Last night got cold and some of our seedlings looked bad this morning, but they recovered with a day in the sun.

I reluctantly ripped apart our herb planters today. They were one of the first things we planted on our original roof garden next door. They’d become overrun with clover weeds and mint. They needed to move to a bigger pot where they wouldn’t choke each other out.

Every summer we fight the wind and heat to keep a hanging basket alive. Lantana might not be the best looking plant out there (and a friend of ours says it is a weed), but its a survivor.