Well I've enjoyed the containers posted over the summer... this is my container grouping .. photo taken the second week of October... a few days ago... sorry if they are the same as posted on another list.. anything is possible in a container for sure... guess there are two photos.. the front1/2 of the garden and theback 1/2..
ALl the best... Gordon
Well now for the back 1/2.. then up to start overwintering .. but they hardly seem ready.. I know I'm not...
Oh, Gorden! It's lovely! Will you be able to overwinter some of them? Are those Chinese Lanterns to the left?
What a wonderful space you have to enjoy "summer in the City"...
Great garden, Gordon! Is that grass I see in the far right lower corner of first picture? What floor is your garden on? Also, do you take your plants inside your home to overwinter or does your building provide a space for you?
Terrie
OH thanks...
Sequee...I don't have any chineese lanterns... I asssume you mean plants... which photo were you looking at and thought you saw thoes..
Trunnels.. yes it is grass,, I started it maybe 8 years ago.. i t does ok.. but like it all you have to cut it and it probually needs it again.. must have a better picture of that.. I've been having grass about for years.. I used to have a patch inside around the bed.. but that was the 60's.. I'd written some on rooftop landscapeing back then..and I was useing it her to give a garden feel to it..and decrease the heat.. I've since been able to use the extream roof heat to blast the tropicals.. like one day it was 80* F out.. and the black rubber membrane of the roof surface clocked in at 145*F.. so wind off that onto the plants was intence... it's like that every day up there.. it was 64*F the other day.. the roof was 94*F.. it's like a container with no sides on the roof surface
the roof is the top of the 4th floor.. so I guess it's 5 floors up.. I can take alot of them inside.. and I'll have a light this winter for them that I keep alive.. alot of the tropicals I keep alive all winter .. and sometimes blooming.. I might let them go dormant ..but I like the effect of them growing over sitting bare in pots in my living space.. I don't have storage so it mostly lives with me during the winter .. but the weeks of blooming plumerias and an occasional bloom from an angels trumper is a real help in the grey of winter..
AM I BOREING YET... go to the vidio tape ..well a few stills .. first is a closer shot of the back 1/2.. blooming today
oh the grass photo.. not a real good one of it.. It grows around a raised section with decking on it.. it is rimmed in plastic rock edgeing.. got to try and keep it light there.. photo was a few months ago.. as the roses are better plants... then.. Gordon
Very awesome! i didn't even realize what those were in the first photo. The bright orange I was referring to is off to the left and a bit behind the trumpets.
well Kits... loves the lawn also... no hot roof on her padded feet.. Gordon
OH Squee
they are hibiscus.. got a woven three trunked standard ay home depot.. each of the trunks blooms a slightly diffrent color.. here's a closer one of one of the orange flowers.. it's growing with the butterfly bush just behind it in the planters that make up the fence/planter unit Gordon
What an incredibly beautiful cat! The phot looks like it was taken in the wild!
And you garden - just WOW! I had no idea how HUGE it is! You are very talented!
Great place Gordon,
well done M8,
btw, is Kits maybe an ocelot??
Wintergrrrrowlll
OMG, Gordon! You should win some sort of award for that incredibly beautiful rooftop garden! I've never seen anything like it. Obviously, you have been gardening on the roof for a long time. Your kitty is beautiful. She looks like a leopard to me. Your brug is beautiful, also!
Terrie
OH ..Well .. Thanks Terry.. thanks on all counts.. and I accept.. TY
Winter x x x x Thanks.. Kits ia a third generation of crosses of a felis domesticus [ a tabby or perhaps another domestic cat to a felis begalis [ a small wild asian jungle cat..hince the breed name bengal.. 's not a tiger related refrence..]
DstartZ..thank you.. and there are no buildings able to look down on it.. there are a few roofs nearby from which you can see it.. and some places can see the considerable number of things t o want to grow through or over it so you're one of the few ever to view it..
Thanx for the info Gordon,
as I said, great place, and the nicest bit of p ...., sorry nicest cat I've seen in a long time ;-)
Wintermoor
wintermoor.. are you a native german... you've quite a grasp on the english vernacular..
That is an amazing cat! Thank you again for sharing your garden and view with us GordonHawk.
No Gordon, I'm Scottish, living in Hamburg.
Wintermoor
Whintermoore... oh like the lyrics in the Mark Knoffler song German built and Brittish made.. have you heard the song...why are you doing there.. to enjoy more winter ?? What do you have in your Brittish/German containers.. yes.. probually getting cold a bit too early there for you.. and any plants.. [ I know it's comming too early here also.. it does every year ]
you did sound like an English speaking native to me...
I do have escapees from my garden also...
More, more, more! I'm totally in awe! Not only are you incredibly artistic and a great gardener, but you're also quite the photographer! Great shots of and excellent hideaway! People who come to visit you must feel like they fell through the looking glass!
Sequee..
Well thanks.. for sure.. yes it is a bit disorenting .. I try to lend a hand as they come up for the first time.. particularly at night ...so would you like to see more flowers or vistas...
Wow - that's a nice perspective. So, do the steps up to your rooftop garden come into a common area, or to you home? Are you absolutely bonkers by March and Jonesing to get up there and start growing???
I have a sunroom - about (?) 20' by 12' and I fill it in the winter with whatever I can bring in. Last year I had it so full that I was actually getting claustrophobic by April and ended up bringing the tomatoes out the day before our last hard frost! I lost half of them. This year I'm going to tone it down a bit (ha!).
Would love to see more of everything, if you don't mind sharing. You've made quite the wonderland!
Your garden is great. I really like your cat. How old is your pet?
Gordon, your garden and talents are awesome. I've just enjoyed seeing the photos. I used to live in Chelsea. How close are you? From the vista it looks either like Central Park or the Battery. You have so much room and I love the railing around the garden. Did you put that in? And is that a tree I see?
Judith in Denver
Oriole.. Thanks.. she is about 6 years old I guess..
Revclaus.. Thanks.. the Chelsea Hotel on 23 st is about 4.3 miles away.. the city views are of the Battery Wall Street area.. I'm across the East River in Brooklyn.. and over look lower Manhattan.
The fenceing and planters are one unit.. I designed and personally constructed everything visable.. the fence design I took from a traditional Japaneese fence with a trellis on top rather than the usual roof running along the top .. the fence slats are cedar.. with bamboo placed in the space seperating them.. the bamboo continues up over the fence and is lashed to horozontal pices of bamboo to form the trellis.. the spaces in the fence are good for tieing supports to and to break the wind not oppose it.. if the wind hits a solid fence it will travel up and over it to come down on the other side.. with greateer speed than it hit the fence with..pancakeing the plants behind it
[ the cape effect like an air plane wing.. the upper air has to move faster as it goes around the wing] there are two Japaneese maples.. .a red and a varigated green one.. they are about 8 years old up there all of the time...
pictured is the tropical corner and the pond.. [ rubber membrane folded as a box inbetween the planters
This message was edited Oct 10, 2004 1:37 PM
You're incredible..and if I'm not mistaken that is one beautiful batch of basil you've got going there. When was this taken?
i haven't seen views like that since i worked on wall street for solomon brothers back in the early seventies. your rooftop garden is simply beautiful.
Your garden is amazing but .... please more kitty pictures!!!!!
Thanks Herbie43.. yes the views from the top are great.. or you haveto be a bit further away to get them..
Ursula.. kitty pictures.. I sent the link to her site they deleted for being comercial..although as I'd posted she was out of the kitty business due to her operation.. but here is one of her climbing up to where I was on top of the skylight.. she's a good hunter .. and doesn't like any insect or bug... as she was climbing up in this photo.. she flushed something out of the vines.. continued next post
so .. she flushed out a bug from the vines.. and continued to the next roof where she went after it.. I'll skip the following three pictures where she wated on the next roof in case it should want to return... till it was way after dark.. such devotion to insect removal... my cat indeeed.... Gordon
Gordon, thanks for the info on the fence. Your bananas, cannas, and alocasias are gorgeous, as is everything else. It's such fun to learn about somebody else's experience in gardening in containers, trying to cope with the elements, taking advantage of the views, and seeing the fruits of so many years of great gardening and planning. Thanks for sharing with us. Obviously we're all very impressed.
Judith
Thanks for the kitty pictures and for the kitty-mail, Gordon.
You have found a great way to make the big city 'liveable'. Congratulations!
Judith.. well it's just like not stopping buying containers and plants.. it's pretty easy in that passing them up is harder.. . yes the conditions are tough.. 57* this morning.. like fall and the roof surface was 120*F a few hours later .. I have a real time figureing out what zone that is.. and the plants anrn't sure if to go dormant or bloom like crazy.. Todays Photos tropicals are blooming like they live high on a central american volcano.. that's the mind set here... Gordon
That's one of your best shots to date. hard to believe we're close in proximity. Here's my house today!
Neat Sequee..
getting some nice oranges in your garden there...
and the grass has some green .. is there anyhting blooming now
II saw Carmel.. we're real close.. you are nestled there in amongst the lakes... bet all of the water lends it's self to alot of snow..
MMM ikt will be more than a bit difficult to get a picture of my car and garden together .. I'm still trying to get the tractor up here for fall plowing.. Thanks Gordon
Gordon,
Your pasi bloom is beautiful. Is that a dahlia in the other picture on the right side?
Terrie
Loks like an exotic jellyfish! Passion flower?
I had to sell my Eclipse when I moved up here to the "snow belt" - it didn't even like the drive up the hill in the summer! I am lucky enough to work for a company that offers us ALOT of PTO, so I always make sure to save up enough time to take snow days off! It affords me the luzury to pace myself! Last year one storm alone dropped 25 inches - it came so fast and furious I couldn't even tackle it midstream - just waited it out. Then I couldn't get the sunroom door open! The snow drift was all the way up the 7 backs steps and 1/3 the way up the back door. Talk about needing a tractor...
Just eavesdropping in-wow what a gorgeous rooftop gordon! Just incredible. Makes me want to get out and plant all the bulbs on my dining room table. You are so inspiring. Thanks for sharing those great photos.
Shinny, I bet that would be a great lookin' dining room table with all those flowers a'bloomin! tee hee
Trunnels.. Thanks.. yes it is a dahalia on the other photo.. [ with the mandavillas in pink and white] it's Wlater Hardathy I think it was.. definately walter and the last name does start with a H.. greatl arge flowers in pure white... I buy many dahalias from Swan Island Dahalias.. they do have some lovely ones there..
Shinny.. well thanks.. roof planting is somewhat like growing on a table.. be sure to post photos of your planting ..
Sequee... my that's alot of snow.. I'm glad I miss most of it..
Plumerias and rooting brugs around the dinning room table.. a few plumeria blooms are in there also.. lots of plants inside.. jungle outside as well as inside.. what could be better.. Gordon
