29 May

Co-planting Roses with Lavender, Sage, and Thyme

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

lavenderI had a meeting near Union Square this afternoon and stopped at the Greenmarket on my way back to the office. I can’t help myself — I bought more plants for the roof.

I bought two “True English” lavender plants plus purple sage, purple basil, German thyme, oregano and a variegated sage from The Blew Family’s farm stand. This article on companion plants for roses was my guide.

All these herbs will be co-planted (a phrase I just learned) with the English heirloom roses I bought R* for his birthday: a lilac-pink Yesterday and the explosively apricot Cottage Garden . I like puzzling over the combination of each pot — coordinating color, fragrance, height, light plus water and soil requirements.

29 May

Smith and Hawken’s Stack and Grow Planter

Posted by Chris P in Summer 2009. Tagged: .

stack_and_grow_planter

We’re running out of space for plants. Tomorrow, we’re potting two irises with some yarrow and two rose bushes. Once those plants go in, we’ll have no vacancy up there for the rest of the summer.

Now we’re eyeing this Stack and Grow Planter from Smith & Hawken. A plant skyscraper seems very New York to me. Since water is scarce up on our roof (we need to lug it up from our apartment on the second flooor), we dig how the water efficiently drains through the whole planter.

Too bad the Stack and Grow Planter is round though. A square shape would be easier to tuck into a corner when we have guests and need more space for the grill. Also, the plant pockets look shallow and I keep hearing that the key to great roof gardening is huge, deep pots.

28 May

OXO’s Container Gardening Set

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

oxo_container_gardening_set

We haven’t bought any gardening tools yet. Just dirt and pots.

We use coffee mugs and our hands to move the dirt into the pots. For now, I’d rather spend our money on plants than tools. But still, I have my eye on this container gardening set ($41.99) from the gadget geniuses over at OXO.

Isn’t it cute? We could tote the tools up to the roof top using that handy blue container. The snips would be the most helpful. We already need to do some deadheading. But what would I do with a Multi-Use Transplanter anyway? No clue what that is.

I love OXO’s peeler so I bet this garden tool set would be great.

28 May

Home Depot: More Pots and Some Yarrow

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

yarrow_onthe_nyc_subway

A gardener friend of ours toured the Presby Memorial Iris Garden in Upper Montclair, NJ and gave us two iris plants. We want to get them set up on the roof before our cat attacks them, so I went to Home Depot last night to buy more pots.

We’re not sure if the irises will flower this summer or not, so I picked up this yarrow to plant with them. That should keep things colorful all summer. (They looked great on the subway trip home anyway!)

According to Wikipedia: “Nursery rhymes say if you put a yarrow sachet under your pillow, you will dream of your own true love. If you dream of cabbages (the leaves do have a similar scent), then death or other serious misfortune will strike.” Yarrow is drought-tolerant and attracts butterflies.

R* and I are determined to have all of the pots in our garden match — same curved shape and same terra cotta color. We bought all of the big plastic pots we could get at Target in Brooklyn, but now they’re sold out. Luckily, Home Depot in Manhattan sells the exact same line of plastic pots, though they are more expensive at Home Depot.

28 May

What Herbs Grow Best in a Roof Garden?

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

herb-garden

We’re mostly growing drought-tolerant plants and grasses in rooftop container garden. I did sneak one spring of thyme into a pot just to see what would happen. So far it is still alive.

It seems like Mediterranean herbs could hack the heat and direct sunlight of a roof garden. They could also look beautiful and add an amazing fragrance. Does anyone have suggestions on what herbs we should try to grow on our Brooklyn roof?

Photo: Sunset Magazine

27 May

One Plant at a Time

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

r_gap_plant

Plant by plant, our garden keeps growing. R* and I picked out this hanging basket at Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket on Saturday. Here’s R* walking it home.

We’d planned to hang it on an pipe that punches through the corner of our garden space, but quickly learned it is too windy and hot there. We hung it on the poll a few hours on Saturday and it wilted. A quick spray with the neighbor’s hose (shhh!) and it was good as new again, but we’re keeping it out of the direct sun for a while. This is the only mega-flowery plan we have. We need the color and don’t want to kill it!

27 May

A Butterfly in Our Sedum

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

butterfly_sedum

Our small roof garden experiment is only three weeks old, but somehow a butterfly has already found us.

I’d read that a certain type of sedum is the host plant for the San Bruno elfin butterfly, but I didn’t expect any butterflies to stop by our rooftop. Maybe they were already in the neighboorhood taking in Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden?

We were up on the roof with some friends when I saw this butterfly and started snapping tons of pictures with my phone. “It’s just a butterfly,” they said. Bah! I think it’s really cool.

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