Brooklyn Roof Garden Tilling the tar beach

When we took a rooftop gardening class at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this spring, the teacher warned that growing small amounts of vegetables on a roof top was unsustainable and probably silly. Too much water, too much time.

She was totally right. I could have bought this bunch of radishes this morning at the farmer’s market for $1.99. Plenty of trendy succulents could creep along in the sun where my Veg Trug is.

And yet, growing my small vegetable garden from seed has given me complete child-like glee. Faith and hope are hard to think about, but dropping a row of seeds in the ground in March and pulling out a bunch of radishes today is my good thing. Yes, I suppose I am the stereotypical yuppie gardener (don’t get me started about how much better MY rooftop arugula tastes!) but I hope I’m a little bit of a kid bringing home a gangly sprout rooting in a milk carton too.

Check out these tulips standing on their tiptoes in front of The James hotel in Chicago.

A bowl of white tulips with curly willow sits in a stand, expanding the growing space and adding height. The tulips are just outside your window when your cab pulls up to this hip hotel.

This could be a bit floristy feeling for our Brooklyn residential block, but it is fresh and eye-catching just off the Magnificent Mile.

I’m in Chicago for work and found this iPot. I’ve been looking for a small tasteful grow light to start a few seeds and small plants inside. This might be a solution.

I noticed black spots all over the leaves of our hibiscus. Tiny black bugs – I think they are aphids – are crawling all over. There seem to be ants racing up and down the branches “farming” the aphids.

Confession: I don’t really like hibiscus and wouldn’t be overly sad if it went. They seem to tropical for Brooklyn and the flowers remind me of the Ocean Pacific tee shirts I wore in junior high. This tree was left by the precious owners of our apartment. This tree does have one cool trick: it blooms twice each season. It flowered to welcome us in September, just as we moved in.

We’ve never had a problem with roof garden pests before and I don’t want these aphids to spread to other plants. Luckily RP and I are taking a class at Brooklyn Botanic Garden tomorrow. I bet we’ll find some advice there.

Wow, right? This is a 1,600 square foot roof garden in Chelsea, Manhattan. Sotheby’s has the full tour of this $4.5 million home.

Our seeds arrived today from Hudson Valley Seed Library! 19 different kinds, I think I was a bit ambitious.

RP is home putting together our new potting bench.

I tripped over this inspiring daffodil window box yesterday in Boston’s Back Bay in front of Sault, a well curated shop that’s hard to define. They sell: ties, notebooks, gardening tools and vintage curiosities.

The owner told me there’s more gardening items on the way for spring!

Our whole co-op has had our eyes on our Brooklyn tree pit garden for a couple weeks. Well, today was the day. They’re here, they’re here: the first flowers of the 2012 gardening season!

This daffodil is a bit lanky looking and cautious, almost as if to say: I know I’m a little early, I could walk around the block if you want, but I brought some good champagne!