The Final Roof Haul of the Season

Really been wondering about all the rain in the forecast that NEVER happens lately ... and I'm glad I've got a hose and remember to check the forecast after it's to have happened ... most of the pots were still damp after their good soaking the last time it didn't rain ...


... and I got a nice little tomato haul off the roof again this evening ...


... been waiting for Elberta Peach - a friend for Zaid the Zuc!

Midsummer's Day Dreaming while everythings thriving ...

Won't mince any words - it's a little disorganized BUT everythings peaking and bolting and about ready to burst into ripeness ... got to just LOVE this time of the year (would like to bottle it and keep the lid on it for a whole lot longer) ...

She shoots & scores ... on the ROOF

... Xmas Colours begin ... Mint & Tomatoes (I made a mint pesto using feta cheese, garlic, salt and olive oil and I stored some dessicated mint in sweet almond oil and will add some crushed almonds and put it on chicken or cookies or something else that's begins with a 'C' ... possibly?

... seriously I didn't plan any of this ... I was in bare feet on a hot roof grabbing things that looked ready ...


... some syrup and 'mash' made after collecting rhubarb on my last trip back to the allotment

Basil Pesto ... can't get the taste out of my mouth (a little like licorice gelato - which I might still be tasting from a week ago) ...


And finally ... the first strawberry of the 'season'!

1 July 2010 - Canada Day Shots

There's a little Rosa Bianca on this Eggplant!

One really really red pepper!

These look fake - I know. I just cant bring myself to pluck them (just yet)!

The dit ...

The whip ...

The potatoes look like they are doing quite well!

Day 10 - RED PEPPERS! ... and potatoes

Burans ... SWEET!





One potatoe, two potatoes, three potatoes ... more!

Day 9 - 3 Pots of Potatoes

I managed to get on the roof today and pot up 3 pots of potatoes (one round potato and two of the fingerlings) ... I used compost like the video a post or two back suggested so we'll see. It is supposed to rain today, tomorrow and the next day so that should give them a good start. I used 100% cotton pillowcases from Value Village - a nice heavy green one and two fleecey beige ones for the fingerlings and I put them into large cardboard pots (where I originally got them from I'll never remember) ... they've been up there since forever and I've been meaning to put them out in the recycle but they are the last things on my list and each year I conk out before they get brought down.

I also decided to bring the left over eggplants and peppers to the garden to plant them in the original tomato patch since it still had room.

video on greenhouse

Planting Potatoes

I found this video on You Tube ... it looks easy enough. I went to Value Village and bought a 100% heavy cotton pillow case which will hopefully work for this ... I might need a container for it to sit in ...

The Roof Tally So Far (minus more than a few or so)

These eggplants and peppers still need to be potted up or given away!



The Tally
16 Tomatoes
I Pot of Mint from Allotment
1 Pot of Rosemary
1 Pot of Sweet Peas, 4 ivy, cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) <- rennet cheese-making substitute (eat the stem)
1 sm pot lavender
7 pepper plants in 4 pots
2 eggplants in 1 pot
1 orange eggplant in a pot
chives & mustard greens
1 pots of sages
1 strawberry
Parsley(s), Gayla's Mint, Bloody Dock (needs to be repotted - I just read it will get pretty big ... not quite like the mustard greens)

I Still Need to Plant
Gayla's Naranjilla, Edame (3), cippolini onions, basils, eggplants, edible flowers, beans, peas?
ornamental glasses and ground cover



Find out the name of the third thorny plant I got from Gayla ... Morelle de Balbis (Solanum sisymbrifolium) but I don't think that's what it is from some reason.

Day 8 - Too Hot to Pot (Water Monitor Begins)

The Dit is doing well ... it's in with two broadleaf basils



I just went up to the roof and realized it's just too
hot to pot - i'll go back when it's quite a bit cooler!

Day 7 - Almost Done Planting on the Roof

Not such a great photo I know but it's as good as it gets! I am so tired.

It took days to finally get all the bags of soil, compost, 3-in-one, soil less mix and what nots up there and just a handful of hours (that's five:) ... to put most of my plants into containers. Lots of lettuce got tucked in under tomatoes ... more tomatoes this year than last. The 'Dit' finally got it's own pot and ditto - the other Whipper.



Now I'm doing a rain dance ... I wish I didn't have a pink rug - it doesn't go so well with muddy feet - albeit it's kind of dusty rose ... and I know What the What dusty rose am I nuts (I sometimes kind of really hate that I love dusty rose ... but I do ... it goes well with my toe nail polish I noticed tonight and that made me smile a big one ... it goes with taupe ... and I really like taupe ... it reminds me of raspberries in the dew ... I like it with my mango, vanilla and chocolate furnishings ... vanilla chocolate raspberry ... I like it with silver ... I like pink and black ... it's kinda like terra cotta ... aged terra cotta ... wine is a deeper version ... walking on it with muddy feet feels good too ... dustier rose & anything goes!

mid-August tomato haul from the allotment - no more time for paperwork

Maybe what I kind of don't like is that it's been stereotyped as a girl colour inferring it's one of the weaker ones ... OR ... maybe what I don't like is that it shows the mud). I also once thought of living surrounded in wall-to-wall dusty rose as being a little akin to being in a living womb kind of ... so walking around with mud on your feet inside of a womb - not coOL.

WHY ISN"T IT RAINING - it said it was going to?

Day 6 - Furniture is Moved

I believe a decision to place the greenhouse frame against the North Wall is final. It seems a perfect fit lengthwise with the gate to Charles' deck just on the other side of it giving enough room for the long storage containers to hold the irrigation system(s) with pots in front where the sun hits them in the afternoon. This arrangement also allows me to put a straight length of canvas over just the sides to give me complete privacy from both neighbours - can't ask for more - taking the canvas down when I'm not on deck will allow for full sun on the plants.

Whippersnapper's first red tomato

Yesterday the Whip produced it's first red tomato (way in the back - look way back ... there's a 2nd blushing peachy in front of it and two more getting there)! This was grown from seeds started on 20 February.

Day 5 - Soil Conditioning Day

I am about to go into the garage and take inventory on what I have and haven't got ... then I begin carting compost up to the roof so I can start conditioning the soil in pots. I have lots of sterile seed starting mix to bring up as well and hopefully I have enough compost to make a dent in today!

Day 4 - Whippersnappers 1st Day Out

Yes those are tomatoes already! I can hardly believe I grew this from a little seed.

Day 3 - Putting the Big Greenhouse Frame together

I did it! I figured it out and without ANY missteps! I began slow and made a good decision at the beginning and it wound up being correct so I was lucky. The three pieces with the C-s on each end are the center top piece for the roof and the two corners so they were the first ones to get attached. I'm not sure I'll ever take it down now? If I do I will mark the poles (see perpetual note in calendar May)





Trying out a second place for the greenhouse frame ... nice but not its final resting place.

Day 2 - Peas in the Breeze

Sunday I got to the roof. What a beautiful day! The weather was in the 20's and I began hardening off some of the seedlings. Kale and Mustard greens from Julianna had already been out but mine had not so I'm taking it easy with them. I'll put them out for awhile each day early or late in the day so they don't get too much too quickly. The flat of peas given to me at the allotment are still doing fine - just as well as the ones I planted in the ground from the looks of them both! I will be attempting to lift them out of the shallow flat and placing them into three separate long containers by the south tonight or tomorrow evening.

Prep Day (4 April 2010) and Day 1 - Organizing the Roof (16 May 2010)

I began unpacking the roof yesterday. Locating and putting together the 3-shelves for the Greenhouse was easy but now where is the plastic zip cover? ... somewhere safe so it doesn't get cracked from winter temperatures (UGH). Next year it will go into this storage box which kept everything perfectly sealed. Ok I might insulate the cover with something and seal it in a plastic bag just in case ... if I ever find it ...

These 3 shelves hardened off most of my plants last year.


This big blue-green box held all the 3-shelf greenhouse poles and kept them dry as a bone all winter (and there's still room left over in it to hold an insulated bag with the zip plastic cover ... if I ever find it again) ...



Big Greenhouse Poles (now I just have to figure out how to put them together) ... without a diagram ... without any idea of what it is supposed to look like ... without remembering the dimensions of the thing (I think it's 6 feet by something and I think I might have a half a clue as to how to do it ... but that's it - just about a half a clue and I'm a little scared because if I remember some of my high school math there could be at least a bazillion ways with this many pieces and it's not now just limited to half a bazillion just because I might have a half a clue ... optimum word being 'might' and I think things take off exponentially at some point and move into infinity which I won't be enjoying much and the plants will all probably die waiting for their hardening off house so it could all be for want of naught and I'll have to keep dragging them in and out for 10 days ... although I am eyeing the two big beige boxes that are empty as a place to keep them overnight if the temperatures drop) hmmm (see one of them below)



I needed to tear a quarter of the tightly packed garage apart to get the Big Greenhouse up on the roof. It and the plastic cover (insulated and in a bag to keep it dry just in case of leakage) will find it's home in one of the two Large Beige (until now empty) storage boxes along the south wall come Fall 2010. I was felt so good that when I bought them and they fit within inches of the space allocated for them I forgot to actually use them. Nevermind! This year I will also use them to hold the large water tube I bought from Lees to water plants when I go away.

THIS POST IS FROM gardenbre3 - Prep Day on the Roof (4 April 2010)

Today I got outside onto the roof after watching 5 hours of the Ten Commandments - intermittently - and planted a big pot of two types of arugula, a pot of nasturtiums and spinach and a pot of mixed lettuces I picked up in Whole Foods in Portland last year.

The chives are up and the sage looks like it's come back bigger and better than ever

   

(and I think I have some big onions)!

I think my strawberry plant looks ok.  In the pot on the right, I planted some Renee's Electric Blue Sweet Peas I just got at Fiesta Farm Nursery yesterday.

Oh - and I potted up a little 6-pak of Thai Basil as well - I don't know what happened to my Lemon Basil that I thought I bought ... looks like maybe I'll have to go back for that tomorrow ... and maybe I'll buy the monkey (hook)!