Home - Rooftop Victory Garden
Rooftop Victory Garden |
On sunday September 20th 2009 noon till 2pm we will be having our rooftop harvest party. This party is a "thank you" for the many volunteers, friends, customers who helped & encouraged us on our rooftop garden. Come meet others with the green thumb. Our meal for the day will be cooked by our Solar Oven, if the sun is up we will have a meal that is cooked without the use of any carbon fuels.
We had 2 solar ovens on our rooftop. Cabage took 1 hour, potatoes 3 hours.
Our spare produce at the Eastside Farmer's market
July 2009, we had bakchow for the whole week
June 2009, it's growing, hurrah
Our lettuce, potatoes, onions, herbs on the ground.
Victory Garden Blitz day, Memorial Day 2009. Crista from BVNA & Mark from EcoVillage planted our vegetables in the on ground containers & old bath tub.
Bayview Compass Writeup
Journal Sentinal Writeup
On Monday 5/4 we moved our compost from the ground to the roof. Many thanks to Urban Ecology, Victory Garden Initiative, Bucket Works, store customers, Tom, Erik, Gretchen & Bruce.
Used 55 gallon barrels were modified to be self watering earth boxes. These 55 gallon drums used to contain vegetable oil for my homemade biodiesel.
5 cu yards of Organic Mushroom compost.
Bucket brigade, zero carbon was used to move the compost from the ground to the roof.
Volunteers being interviewed by National Public Radio & BayView Compass.
Gretchen brought help.
This Rooftop Garden project is part of the Victory Garden Initiative
We currently have a flat rooftop, underneath the snow the roof is covered by rubber.
Another view of our rooftop. This was during our solar PV system install.
Our roof is reinforced from with trusses from the inside to withstand loading of a green roof.
We are intending to have a Victory Garden on our roof top to grow vegetables, herbs & flowers.
During our 1st meeting on Jan 21st 5pm we had 10 people attend. Swee showed our architectural plans of our building & plans to have containers as raised beds on the rooftop. The timeline of the project was presented.
We setup growing lights & tables for the seed growing station in the Feb 25th meeting. Bruce & Swee presented earth box as containers for growing.
On Feb 27th Charlie demostrated germinating seeds from a plastic container using a moist towel. The container mus be kept moist at all times, if the germination process is proceeding too fast put the container in the fridge. Volunteers took home seeds to germinate using this technique. 20 people came to help seed & brainstorm on the containers made from 55 gallon barrels. We plan to tranplant the germinated seedings to flats in our growing station during the March 13 meeting.
March 13th we tranplanted our sprouts to our growing station. The paper napkin will need to be carefully torn & the sprouts gently removed & placed into the planting trays.
Bruce with his homemade earthbox
Below are pictures of similar 55 gallon barrels we will be modifing to containers.
March 22nd Garden Party
March 30th UEC volunteered at our Victory Garden to put up our fence & cut our remaining earth boxes.
Some sub project to consider :
1> Planning of raised beds.
2> Planning of spring vegetable & herbs using companion planting. Planting
seeds in basement in trays. Install heating pads, lights, etc.
3> Raise the 250 gallon water barrel off the ground, atleast 4 feet high.
4> Divert solar PV to rooftop water pump. Irrigation system to water
plants in the roof.
5> Worm composting system.
About Milwaukee Victory Garden Initiative
Some considerations for a roof top garden
Jerry Minnich's Wisconsin Gardener's Guide
Wisconsin County Extension website
Farming with minimal space
Container Gardening
Where to buy organic seeds We carry seeds from "Seeds of Change" in our store.
Our local Victory Garden Group
Long list of vegetables Lisa & I like :
artichokes
asparagus
avacado
bean sprouts
beans
bell peppers (red, yellow, green)
broccoli
brussels sprouts
carrots
cauliflower
celery
collard greens
corn
cucumbers
eggplants
garlic
kale
lettice (ice burg, mix blend and romaine)
onions
parsley
peas
potatoes
snow peas
soybeans
spinach
squash
Tomatoes
turnips
Tentative timeline :
Mid feb : Have final list of veg & time frame to plant. We need advice to
see if these vegetable are doable & time to sprout the seeds, or even by
pass growing from seeds, when to plant, number of seeds needed, etc.
End of Feb : setup planting area in basement of future green, setup
lights, heating pads, soil flats, plant seeds. We also need someone to
care for the seedings daily.
Mid march or sooner : Fabricate containers, cut pallets to size. Setup
containers in roof top.
3rd week of march : Mix soil, bonemeal, ash, compost material, worm tea,
peat moss, atleast 20 cu foot.
30th March 10am to 2pm : Carry soil to the roof &
fill rooftop containers with soil, cover
containers & let sit of 2-3 weeks. Uraban Ecology volunteers will be helping us.
Beginning of april : Setup irrigation system, worm composting area, rain
collection. Divert solar electric panel power to solar pump.
Mid april : Plant
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