Operation Urban Rooftop Farm – The Initial Ascent

There has been considerable progress since my last post here at the Roof Top Farm.  My tomato plants have more or less doubled in size and look quite robust and healthy.  Unfortunately, I had 12 tomato plants in one large planter, which simply doesn’t work.  I transplanted the tomatoes into seven planters, two of which are large circular planters that can hold only one plant in each, and 5 long rectangular planters that now house two plants each.  This took a toll on my bedroom since I went from having just three planters (two house my pepper plants) to having nine large planters sprawled across the bench beneath my windows.  Thankfully we should be beyond the point of overnight frosts here in Boston, so my plants will be taking up residence on the roof very soon.  I can’t tell you how imperative it is that these plants get out of my room.  There are little gnats, which I believe are called mud gnats, which live in the soil and buzz around my room like they own the place AND I needed to mix some fertilizer into the soil, so my room smells like the restroom at your local KFC.

 

I don’t think I’ve mentioned in my previous posts that this is not my first attempt at growing edibles up on my roof.  Last year I grew tomatoes and a variety of herbs.  The herbs were a piece of cake to grow and are starting to come back to life this spring.  The tomatoes were a different story.  I bought the plants at Whole Foods when they were only a foot and a half tall and put them immediately up on my roof.  Since I did not harden them off to the elements and put four plants in one planter, the plants were rather stunted and didn’t bear a ton of tomatoes.  However, they did produce a couple of harvests worth, NONE OF WHICH MADE IT INTO MY STOMACH.  Every time a tomato looked like it was a day or so away from being ripe, it would “magically” disappear.  My guess/hope is that squirrels were eating them.  This issue of squirrels messing with my plants has carried over to this year as well.

 

A couple of days ago I went up to the roof to water my arugula, Swiss chard and spinach that have only just begun to sprout.  I noticed that something had clearly been digging in the two planters that house these sprouts, and in one there was a tiny bit of something odd poking out of the soil.  I dug out the alien object, which ended up being ¾ of a slice of bread.  I then looked over at the portion of railing closest to the planter and saw that there were crumbs all over it.  Clearly a squirrel nibbled on this bread until full, then buried it in my planter for later.  It looked like it was whole wheat, so I admire the squirrel’s pursuit of a whole grain rich diet, but what a jerk.  This won’t stand.  I talked to my parents about how to stop the squirrels from poking around my plants since they are well seasoned gardeners, and they told me to put cayenne pepper on the soil.  I had a problem with this.  I can’t stomach the thought of a squirrel digging into cayenne-laced soil…it just isn’t strong enough.  So, I went with habanero powder.  These squirrels are in for a serious surprise. 

 

This morning I began the process of hardening off my tomato plants.  I put them all up on the roof since the forecast for today is a high of 64 and all day overcast.  You can’t get much more ideal conditions then all day overcast since it allows your plants to acclimate themselves to the outdoors without getting baked in the sun.  My roof tends to be extremely windy, which necessitates the construction of wind barriers.  I haven’t done this quite yet, but today is supposed to be rather calm, so I think I’m alright for now.  However, I will be putting up barriers within the next couple of days so that I can get my plants on the roof permanently by midweek. 

 

As for non-tomato updates, I planted a new round of pole beans directly in a planter up on the roof.  They should sprout by this Thursday, at which point I’m going to start guiding them towards the railing that the planter is up against so that they can grow up the railing and add a natural wind buffer.  My last remaining pole beans that were planted months ago bit the dust last week, but that was to be expected.  I have high expectations for this batch.  My pepper plants are still doing quite well.  I think they will begin their transition up to the roof this upcoming weekend since I have run out of pots.  I am also going to plant some more cool weather crops like fennel this upcoming weekend.  So, there is much more to come in the next few weeks!