Hi fellow lamma gardeners,

I started a rooftop garden on august 5th 2011, and thought I would share some photos. Currently growing chili peppers, eggplant, basil, and angled loofah. First time doing a container garden, and also first time trying on a roof. Biggest challenges so far are heat/sun mitigation, which I am countering with double potting, using white pots, deeper than usual potting, and a shade cloth.

Would love to hear other gardeners experience with rooftop gardening.

Angled loofah starts, actually left it in the shade too long since was out of town so it got a bit leggy. You can see some insect damage on the first set of true leaves, I found the culprit (little green caterpillar) and manually removed it. I also got some Neem oil and gave a good spray and that seemed to do the trick. You can also notice some sun scald on several leaves due to the intense heat and sunshine on the roof.

Eggplant starts -

These plants seem to love sunlight, much more than the loofah, and even moreso than the chillies.

Genovese Basil starts -

Basil is turning out to be incredibly easy to grow in these conditions. It grows under the shadecloth well, and also grows in full direct sun (12+ hours of direct on the roof). Pretty forgiving herb!

Update for week 5 -

Basil is taking off, while loofah looks like it has some sort of deficiency. Gave it nitrogen liquid fertilizer to see if it helps.

Week 6 update. Chilis have started flowering at the axial nodes. Lots of recent rain has caused some overwatering/leaf curl. The deficiency in the loofah seems to be correcting, possibly due to a dose of fertilizer. The upper leaves appear to have darkened.

latest update to the rooftop garden - Was out of town for a long while, and typhoon nesat took a toll on the garden, but some survived, and are even setting fruit! Chillies and loofah are fruiting. Eggplant is flowering, but no fruit set as of yet. Thai basil and genovese basil have been harvested, and the choy sum was unfortunately claimed by the typhoon and pests. At the time of these photos the garden was approximately 10 weeks old, started from seed.

Quite a lot of fauna has taken up residence in the garden. I regularly see geckos, toads, and various predatory wasps and mantis, as well as a host of crawlies I can't yet identify.

While pruning some dead leaves, I was startled to find an enormous mantis guarding a loofah plant. Although it scared me to be suddenly confronted with a huge insect, i'm pleased to see beneficial insects inhabiting the garden.

The garden is 11 weeks old, and was very pleased to see the first eggplant flower had finally set fruit. The cooler weather over the last week has triggered renewed growth and flowering in the garden. I have begun to move some of the plants further out from the sun shade, to see if they can tolerate the exposure.

Looks fabulous! Well done. I will have another go - most of my previous efforts have come to naught. I feel a bit more enthusiastic seeing yours. Txs

Hi Boss,

Let me know if you need any seeds or seedlings. I usually have a few seedlings lying around. Also, if you want any tips for rooftop setup, im happy to share what I did.

Cheers and good luck with your growing!

Week 12 of lamma rooftop garden. Eggplant is growing furiously, lots of pretty purple blossoms and fruit set. The loofah is also experiencing growth spurt with lots of green growth and small loofahs popping up. However, I am doubtful the vine can support all of those loofahs to maturity. Loofah blossoms are a bright yellow, and open mostly at dusk. I was very excited to see that the first cayenne chilis have begun to turn color. Just a hint of brilliant red at the tips. Still waiting for the asian chilis to turn red

Hey Liebster!

Thank you very much for your offer. Some seedlings or advice on where to buy and how to grow would be much appreciated.

Sharon 2982 2800 (I'll be out until about 2 today).

Week 13 of rooftop garden grow log.

Last week I sowed Tomatoes, and the starts have finally come up. im growing a small determinate variety called Tiny Tim. I happily harvested the eggplant this saturday, the picture below shows it just prior to harvest. Brushed with olive oil, slightly salted, and grilled over coals, the eggplant was delicious.

Asian Chillies have started turning red; I used several in salsa, and boy do they pack some serious heat. At this point I have three to four chillies turning red per week, giving me a constant and steady supply of fresh chillies. I have even managed to clip a few pepper leaves to give to my mother in law to make Tinola.

As for the loofah, as I suspected many of the smaller loofah fruits that appeared last week have withered. The vine is simply too small to support that many fruits. One Loofah did take off and grow, and it grew really fast. The one pictured was only a couple of inches long last week, and now its nearly 18 inches.

Week 14 lamma rooftop garden

As this is my first attempt at container gardening, I was curious how many plants I could fit into each pot. To conduct the experiment, i planted a pot with 2 chillies, and one with 4 chillies to see if they could produce. Up to week 12, neither the 2 plant or 4 plant chillies had produced any fruit, they just kept dropping the small amount of flowers they had.

So, at week 12 i trimmed each of the pots down to a single plant per pot, and within 2 weeks there was a massive burst of flowering growth, even fruit set! This pretty conclusively settles the issue as far as I am concerned - and I will be limiting 1 plant per pot from now on.

The thai basil and genovese basil are growing steadily, and I noticed they were bolting to seed, so I pruned them back. I also had 8 chillies turn red on me this week, and its great to have a steady supply of fresh heat to add to dishes. I harvest another eggplant, and have at least 2 up and coming that will be ready next week or the week after. Each plant is producing 1-2. I feel that the pot size I used was a bit small, next year i will try with a larger size.

The loofah grew in size marginally, mostly getting thicker rather than longer this week. To date, my loofahs have not been very productive. after 14 weeks, I am just now getting my first harvestable fruit, out of 6 vines. Granted, Typhoon nesat claimed 3 of them, but loofah is proving the most difficult to grow. The structure I built is only around 5 feet off the ground from the distance of the pot to the roof, and the loofah requires a much higher structure to flourish.

Lastly, the tiny tims are growing steadily.

The cold weather brought some pests. I noticed and increase in aphids and scale insect, which required a few hours of manual removal.

Hi there
I'm a first time roof top gardener and would love some advice on what/ what not to do in the coming months.

In particular....

Sun/heat problems- What kind of shade did you use to keep the sun off?
Wind- I am worried that when things grow they will be blown over
Winter Vegetables- Did you grow any carrots etc?

Thanks very much for your time

Richard

I created a 5 foot high sun shade that ran the length of one of the walls. north/south facing garden is best as it keeps the direct sun off the plants. you can buy the black shadecloth at the local store in town.

Wind is a problem during typhoon season or for seedlings, these need to be weighted down. For taller plants, the weight of the soil should keep it rooted, and the walls of the rooftop should keep it mostly protected. But yes, wind is a serious factor that stunts growth.

No I did not grow any carrots - I stuck with tropical weather fruits that I know would grow successfully. But honestly, carrots are the worst thing to grow from a gardener's perspective. They take up to 180 days to grow to harvest, and cost 5 cents in the market...meanwhile a pack of basil can cost up to 5 USD and only takes 40 days to fruit.