Roof Gardening

 

There is a huge amount of rain bearing down on Tasmania, so today I got the ladder out and climbed onto the roof to clean out the gutters. I had forgotten how much fun it is on the roof. We used to sit up here to watch the fireworks at New Years. While I was up high I took photos of the garden. Everything looks more interesting from the roof. Birds must enjoy their topographical view of the world.

I planted out many tiny seedlings this last week. All the brassicas, lots of lettuces, radishes, and all kinds of greens, from mustard greens to wombok, to silverbeet. So many tiny plants. But wait, there's more! On a tarpaulin on the dining room floor I have all the tomatoes, distressingly few capsicums, which really didn't want to germinate, a million basil plants, and a whole lot of cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchinis and beans just starting to sprout. I'll plant all these out next week when the risk of frost is hopefully over. It was minus one (30F) last week, so I hope I am not being too precipitous..

Here is the other side of the garden, with the flourishing apricot tree. It is all still a wild jungle, which I love. To me it feels like a forest with a clearing in the middle for growing vegies. I would like to change up the forest to include more fruit trees and less giant acanthus plants in the year ahead. Also, the other side of the yard has waist high alkanet, grass, and the odd potato plant which I would also like to convert to food forest I bet the neighbours would also appreciate more trees and less giant weeds.

Ok, so this is where I realised that the best place to prune the tops of the nectarine trees would be from the kitchen roof. I must remember this.

I faithfully sprayed the nectarine trees with copper sulphate over the winter, and there is only a little curly leaf showing, and that is mostly right up here at the top where it is hard to spray. Another brain wave. Get up on the roof to spray the nectarine trees. Gosh, I'm brilliant! I wonder how much other gardening I can do from the rooftops? There really is a lot of space and sun up there. I could have a roof garden.. I mean, I just pulled multiple weeds out of the gutters, with extensive root runs. I could just replant the gutters with zucchini and broccoli instead of weeds..

So here is the rain coming in. I love rain. It's getting cold and I have the fire on, with plenty of firewood stacked in the porch. 

The weather has been wild all over the world. The floods keep on coming up the east coast of Australia, and there are fires, floods and storms wherever you look. I sent a message to our beloved friend and Floridian Patricia last week, to see if she had got safely through the hurricane, and she is thankfully safe and well, and only caught the edge of the wild weather. I am so relieved. Hope the garden cleanup has gone well, Patricia, and give my love to the iguanas when you see them. 

Stay safe and warm and dry, all my lovely friends, and enjoy the rain if you live in Tasmania, and hopefully it stays out of your living room xx