It has been a while since I posted an update. In part because my 2 month subscription has expired and I did not feel like paying another fee. Anyway, I am back online and have some additional photos to share with the forum.
This is how the garden looked on June 22, 2008
http://picasaweb.google.com/sergei.s.mikhailov/June222008
And this is July 4th:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sergei.s.mikhailov/July42008
I need to take some more pictures, since there has been a lot of changes since July 4th, some good, some bad.
Good news is that cucumbers, peppers and all the herbs are doing great. Cuces are producing extremely well and I did not have a need to buy cucumbers in a grocery store for a while now. Bell peppers are doing quite well. The bushes are not as tall as a normal pepper(probably because it is pretty windy on the roof), but the peppers taste great. All the herbs are growing like crazy, especially mints, chives. I have even sold a large bunch of mint to a local liquor store for their mojito tasting event.
On the negative side, all of my tomato bushes have gotten sick with something and I had to snap off a lot of leaves, so now they look kinda sad. I did have a good harvest of tomatoes, mostly the smaller variety, not too many large ones, but I am not sure how much longer they will hold up. A healthy plant should live for a long time and it is unfortunate, they these might be on their down slope. I did seed a few more of the variety that should produce in 70 days. Here in DC, I have enough time to see a second harvest, the only problem is that I am not too sure if replanting a new "wave" of tomatoes in the same bales where my old ones got sick is such a good idea, since whatever disease killed them is probably still there.
Also, I did not have much luck with buttercup squash and zucchini plants. Buttercup usually roots in places close to where it sets fruit, but being on the roof, I did not want it to root, so I constantly would lift the vines up, to avoid rooting, so whatever fruit did set, did not grow too large and started turning yellowing. Zucchinis, same thing, pretty much, the bush did not look too good, was kinda small, and thus could not produce any good size zucchinis. I finally decided to pull the squash and zucchinis to free up some real estate for plants that are likely to be more successful. Growing some Thai chilies and some Romanian pepper variety in there now, also from seed, so they are pretty small, but should produce closer to September.
Overall it has been tons of fun and worth it. Plan on doing it next year too, taking in consideration all the lessons learned from this year.
Will try to post a few more pics soon.
This message was edited Jul 23, 2008 12:49 PM
Rooftop Strawbale Garden, Part II
ssm, I have been wondering about you. Was concerned you might have fallen off the roof. Your garden looks great and I am sure you learned a lot and be sure to take notes to see if there are changes you might want to make next year. Different plants, different species, etc.
You really did good. Glad to see you and your garden.
Jeanette
Wow! Interesting, and GREAT photos! Isn't it fascinating, what different results we all get? My most absurdly vigorous and productive plant so far has been what I like to call "The Zucchini that ate Gardenville". My squash, cukes and melons are really producing a lot, and the tomatoes are nearly ripe and it looks like I'll have a lot.
Several others on this forum have talked about a blight on some or all of their tomato plants- I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it passes right by me!!
Thanks for sharing your info and photos- (here's one of that zucchini plant, a few weeks ago)
Suzan
Suzan,
Yea, that zucchini plant definitely looks healthy and strong. Mine never mad it this big, they were stuck at a point where they were just a bit bigger than the small plant you have at the bottom of the pic. They were still trying to produce zucchinies, but those were really tiny.
Yea, I hope your tomato plants stay healthy and produce a lot.
This message was edited Jul 26, 2008 10:01 AM
Sergei: a belated congrats on the fantastic job you've done with your roof-top garden.
Great pics. Thanks for taking the time to post them.