Damn you Amsterdam 'Summer'

It is with much regret that I have some sad news on the Rooftop garden front

This Summer has been the wettest on record and my tomatoes just could not survive in these sorrowful conditions...if any on us could come ot think of it

I learnt alot this summer in respect to gardening & it is definitely something I will continue next year. I feel if i had of got off to a good start back in April things might of been different....but next year it is my intention to have a full crop of tomatoes by the middle of July so the lessons have been learnt.

But until then you can check out my sorrowful toms. As you can see the trees were full of little cherry tomatoes but the weather just worked against us

The moment of truth has arrived.......

The time has come to pull the first of my carrots...at the start of the Summer I really had no clue what I was doing. I have definitely enjoyed the whole experience of getting to understand how this whole gardening lark works.

Anyhow lets see how they turned out

Rooftop Gardening: 8 weeks on

This Amsterdam Summer is one of the worst for a very long time but my garden continues to really love it.

Last night

8 weeks ago

As you can see from my picture of last night the Tomatoes, carrots & onions are really thriving. 
 
to be continued.......

Rooftop gardening: in 5 short weeks

I have been really amazed at how fast everything is going in the garden in recent weeks. The warm weather coupled with the Amsterdam rain in the Summer is making at least someone happy.

Check out the contrasting photos from 5 weeks ago & today! Hopefully I will be making homemade tomato chutney in no time.

Tomato plants 5 weeks ago

Tomato plants today

To be continued......

Better late than Never

Pepper plant moved to get full sun, Carrots & tomatoes going great

Finally I am happy to announce that I think I have cracked this gardening lark. After a slow start after my first seeds did not sprout I can happily say that my second batch are coming along nicely.

My tomato plants are really taking off and all going well I should see some fruit from them at the end of the summer. The Pepper plant I moved last week to the front as the Rosemary was blocking it from the sun. In the front bin only my carrots appear to have taken as the onions & lettuce got attacked by birds! 

To be continued......

Rooftop Gardening: Take II

I learnt from the mistakes of my first attempt at planting my seeds by doing the following:

Rooftop Gardening: Back to Square One

OK as much as I regret to say I think I got to start over again.....these fingers of mine are not so green after all it seems.

It’s been 3 weeks now since I started the garden and still there is nothing happening. I had a little sprout last week but nothing more than that. The mistake I made was not fully understanding exactly it is I was trying to do. I was way too busy with the mountain of information I was trying to digest on the gardening process that I forgot to understand the principle of a seed sprouting. Also I think starting the seeds outside was a little early too, as it is only in the past week that the good weather has really arrived.

Rooftop Gardening: What did I plant?

What did I grow?

I thought it would be a useful idea to run thru everything that I planted in my garden on an individual basis and outline the special areas to consider in terms of when to plant, where to plant, how to water?, How long to harvest etc.

Also for myself it is a good way for me to understand what exactly I need to do over the coming days, weeks & months per each vegetable. Already I realised that the carrot should be planted in a moist soil up until they are almost mature. I had read the instructions wrong and thought they needed to be watered twice a week which I had in fact done as 3 times a week as the weather has been very dry recently. I am glad I caught this mistake early, we will see I guess if it had a drastic effect on the success of the crop.

Straight away I can see the benefit of the square foot gardening method as in the case of the carrots, their watering pattern differs from the others so it is easy to just water their square and not the others. Also with the excellent drainage in each pot any excess water will be drained away

Rooftop Gardening: The Start

(Before we start let me say that a foot is 30cm. An inch is 2.5 cm)

Concept
The concept of squarefoot gardening is very simple. You will condense down your garden into a series of square feet . In my case what I have chosen to do is make a rooftop/patio garden which will be 3 feet long and 1 foot wide. In my larger pot I will again have it 3 feet long but 1.5 feet wide.

The above size is just what suited me you can make it as big as you want with the standard squarefoot garden being 4ft by 4ft 

Rooftop Gardening: An Introduction

The traditional view or thought of gardening is something I have never been overly interested in. I think it all stems from my teenage years having to mow our massive garden at home. But when I read an article about a unique gardening concept called Square Foot Gardening I was very keen to give it a go as this Spring/Summer is my first one being able to enjoy my new Roof Terrace.