5 Oct

The Hanging Basket Report: Better Luck Next Year

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , .

hangingbasket_macys_midtown

We went through two hanging baskets this summer. We had this pink, perfect mini-petunia in June. Once the petunia baked on our roof garden, we swapped it out for this yellow lantana. By the end of August, the lantana fell to the dry windy heat too. (A neighbor criticized us for growing lantana, a plant he considered a weed.)

We’re thinking about new ideas for the hanging basket/pole for next summer.

The plant in this picture, living on a light pole high above 34th Street, near the midtown Manhattan flagship Macy’s made me think more about our hanging basket problem. If a  hanging basket can make it there, seems like a hanging basket could make it anywhere. I wonder how often these pots are watered.

1 Oct

Just Ordered Crocuses for Our Roof Garden

Posted by Chris P in Fall 2009. Tagged: , , , .

crocus_pickwick_whiteflowerfarm

Last night I bought Our Life in Gardens by Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd. This morning, after reading this passage from the end of the first chapter, I ordered 75 crocus bulbs:

“Our first autumn in Pepperell, we also planted bulbs, daffodils of course and crocus and tulips and hyacinths. The day in March when the hundred or so species of crocus we had planted near the doorstep bloomed was then, and remains, a curiously blessed moment in our life together. It was something we vowed would happen each year we were together, forever.”

I love how this couple is able to talk about their garden and their relationship with such tenderness without turning treacly. I’d been wondering if I could grow bulbs on our roof for a while and this book was just the kick I needed.

An experienced gardener I found on the New York City Roofgarden Meetup message board told me “the rule of thumb is that anything in containers on a roof or deck needs to be 2 zones hardier than the growing area.” We’re in zone 7, so I’d need bulbs that were hardy to zone 5 . . . and these crocuses are all good to zone 4, so let’s hope this works.

Thanks to Band of Thebes where I first heard about this terrific book. The New York Times also reviewed the book.

Image: White Flower Farm

30 Sep

Finding Abundance Over Our Heads

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , , , , .

herb_roses_roofgarden_june

This last cold day of September is feeling like the end of roof garden season to me. So I thought we’d take a look back to where our garden started. This is a photo I took of our roses and herbs that we planted in early in June for R*’s birthday. Back then I worried that these little plants looked ridiculous in those huge pots and I didn’t think they’d survive the summer.

Well, here’s how the same posts looked in the end of August:

herbs_roses_roofgarden_august

I suppose I knew that our plants would grow, but I wasn’t expecting this lushness. While I was busy keeping my expectations low, our plants were tripling in size. Is this a small taste of what parenting is like? Watching something grow and being a part of it — that’s a little tiny miracle with lavender flowers — right up on our roof.

Now for the less ethereal part of this lesson: Herbs love growing on sunny roofs in Brooklyn. Plant lots. They will flourish and flavor your food all summer too.

The growing season is just about shot and we’re a little sad.

29 Sep

Garden Going In at Crosby Street Hotel

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009.

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The “spacious leafy courtyard garden” is going in today at the Crosby Street Hotel. The taller metal pots seems to have been inspired by garbage cans, but I like them. Nice contrast between the rough carved wooden low planters and the cooler black metal.

16 Sep

Terrace and Roof Gardens in Rome

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: .

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R* and I have been back from vacation in Rome and the Greek Islands for a little over a week. We’re downloading our photos and reflecting on all that we saw.

We discovered that Rome must be the urban container gardening center of the world. R* and I spent a week wondering through Rome and made a game of pointing out amazing window boxes and roof gardens all over Rome.

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Rome’s container gardens focus on greens, more than flowers. This must be because of the heat — it was nearly 100 when we were there in late August.

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We stayed at the Hotel Torino in Rome. We felt right at home on their  roof garden where a complimentary breakfast is served to guests — and pigeon passers-by — every morning.

Check out Philip’s Garden Blog for a poetic post about roof gardens in Rome. I wish I would have known about these Secret Gardens of Rome before we left the Eternal City. In case the food alone wasn’t reason enough to go back to Rome, I also have to go back to check out more gardens.

15 Sep

Best Roof Garden Plant: Portulaca

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , .

roof-garden-portulaca

Our pansies are past their prime and the lantana languished in the heat . . . but our portulaca is still perfect.

Portulaca is low maintenance (no dead-heading required!) fast growing drought-tolerant annual. As fall approaches, the portulaca is still pumping out flowers so we’ve moved this container to a high visibility perch on our roof garden. See how the portulaca is taking on a burgundy tint with lots of small red flowers? The only down side of portulaca, also called moss rose, is that the flowers are not open in the evening.

Portulaca seems to be out of style? I don’t see it sold often and I don’t see it growing in other NYC gardens. I’m wondering why … maybe because it is related to the weed purslane?

Here’s more information about growing portulaca.

29 Aug

My Hens and Chicks Look Sick

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009.

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23 Aug

Bon Voyage! Thanks, Plant Sitters.

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009.

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We’re heading out for vacation soon. We have a great friend to check in on the cat for us and he’s a very indepent sort anyway.  The plants on the other hand . . . after tending to our garden every day since May, we’re having a bit of separation anxiety.

Two friends in our apartment building have graciously agreed to water the plants for us. They need to be watered once a day, twice a day when it is above 90 and dry. Hauling the water up there every night is a big job so we appreciate the help.

To be on the safe side, we’re also using the Plant Nanny. We put recycled soda bottles screwed into terra cotta spikes into our most thirsty pots. They should self-water our favorite plants. The roses and herbs in particular take a lot of water, so this should be a good back up system.

11 Aug

Roof Gardeners, Meet the Raft Gardeners

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: .

floating_garden_apartmenttherapy

Here’s some enchanting inspiration via Apartment Therapy. Even those of us who lack lakes can get some stylish small space gardening ideas from the Landskrona, Sweden Garden Guild’s contest. 

image: Skona Hem via Apartment Therapy

10 Aug

Growing Bulbs in Rooftop Containers

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: , , , , .

orca_tulip_whiteflowerfarm

I’m looking for some advice on growing spring bulbs in rooftop containers. Can you help? We want to play some bulbs this fall and let them sleep up on the roof all winter and then bursting with some early color up there.

Since our pots are 12-16″, there’s not much soil there to insulate bulbs over the winter. We plan on keeping out pots right along a white wall on our roof, which will provide a bit of insulation, but still it will be cold.

And then if the bulbs survive the winter, it can get windy on our roof. It seems like we will need bulbs with sturdy flowers and short stems. Does this mean French tulips, a favorite of mine, are out? Seems like we’ll need hardy, short stemmed flowers.

I’m planning on using the bulbs only once and then discarding them. This is not the most frugal way to garden, we realize, but we don’t have the space to keep the bulbs in our pots and there’s no cool dark place in our apartment to store them.

I really like the varieties of tulips that ColorBlends puts together, though their site seems to be down right now.

crocus_whiteflowerfarm

I also remember loving crocuses when I was a young child, so I think these would be fun. I was originally thinking of a pink and white color scheme, but I couldn’t find any short stemmed pink tulips . . . then I started liking these orange Orcas.  They’d be great to cut and bring in the apartment and the color is great with purple crocuses.

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