Howdy from Spain

Hello everyone,

I've just moved from Madrid downtown, where I used to live in a small apartment to a small town near Madrid. Now I have a nice house with an ecologic rooftop where I can grow veggies, and that's the place where I'm going to start my gardening adventure.

I'm a total newbie in gardening, but now I've read Mel's book a couple of times, prepared my first two raised beds and my first seedings (I have at my hand a couple of containers with vermiculite and lettuce and tomato seeds).

I have tons of questions about SFG so you will hear from me.

PS I couldn't find messages from spaniards in this forum, but if there are any others SF gardeners from Spain in the forum: Saludos desde Navalcarnero!!!

Hi Elrohir69!

I'm really interested in seeing your ecologic rooftop. I don't know what that is. Can you post photos? We love photos!

CC

Welcome! Hope it goes well for you.

I think the english name is Green Roof. Here you have some good examples: http://www.igra-world.com/
http://walmartlanduse.pbworks.com/w/page/12579752/Green%20Roof%20Policy%20Proposals
http://www.njaudubon.org/SectionCenters/SectionEssex/SiteHistory.aspx

My house had a similar planting on it's roof, but it was in a bad condition when we bought it. I'm just changing the original soil and planting for raise beds filled with Mel's Mix using some fabric to avoid roots going out from the bed. So it will help as isulation (it's original proposal) and will provide us good veggies, so it will be twice ecological

We have 70 sq meters, room enough to place 14 (4x4) raise beds, now we just have one in the roof and another one in the front yard. Hopefully it will grow in number and plants.

I'll post some pictures soon ;-)

Wow what a neat way to garden! Welcome to the forum! Happy to have you hear and looking foward to seeing your pictures.

Bienvenidos. Our family had the opportunity to visit Spain last year. We saw a fabulous living green wall near El Prado. I can't seem to find my pics of it, but it was amazing. I can only imagine what your roof must look like.

Hello Elrohir69 ,
Welcome to the site I wondered how long it would be before we saw people with big roof top set up's

Is your book all newsquare foot gardening by Mel Bartholomews 2005 editiion ?

If so where did you buy it from please ?

How deep are your beds ? Have you had to make them deeper than Mel suggests so as to hold a little bit more water due to the hot weather / sun you normally get ?

Where did you obtain your vermiculite please ? I ask so we can add the details to the vermiculite sourcing list we run on the site.

Awesome! We look forward to seeing your pics when you have the chance!!
Renee

plantoid wrote:Hello Elrohir69 ,
Welcome to the site I wondered how long it would be before we saw people with big roof top set up's

Is your book all newsquare foot gardening by Mel Bartholomews 2005 editiion ?

If so where did you buy it from please ?

How deep are your beds ? Have you had to make them deeper than Mel suggests so as to hold a little bit more water due to the hot weather / sun you normally get ?

Where did you obtain your vermiculite please ? I ask so we can add the details to the vermiculite sourcing list we run on the site.

This edition from amazon: http://www.amazon.es/New-Square-Foot-Gardenin-Bartholomew/dp/1591862027/ref=sr_1_3?s=foreign-books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343927640&sr=1-3

I have prepared the beds with the same height, 15 cm (6 inches if I'm not wrong). But I've just prepeared them, so I'm not sure how it'll work.

I've alredy posted a message about where did I get from the vermiculite. I bought it in a shop for farmers in the village where I live and it came from a factory in the north of Spain: http://www.vermiculitayderivados.com/

I bought 125 liters bags at a very good price I think, 20 euros (around 16 dolars), I think, but not sure, that they also prepare bags of vermiculite mixed with peat moss, I'll try to find information about it.

My main problem was the peat moss I bought, it was too brown, I think it should be more "blonde", but not sure. I think the peat moss we have here in europe is from Germany and the Baltic area, and not sure if it's the same kind as the peat moss you have in North America. I've seen a lot of videos about SFG in Youtube and the peat moss was different to mine one.

Thanks for you comments!!!

JustMe wrote:Bienvenidos. Our family had the opportunity to visit Spain last year. We saw a fabulous living green wall near El Prado. I can't seem to find my pics of it, but it was amazing. I can only imagine what your roof must look like.

That wall is in the Caixaforum Museum. I used to live a mile away from that place and I could see how they built it every morning when I was driving my daughter to school. Now we moved to the countryside, 30 km away from Madrid to a small town famous for it's wines. We miss the downtown but now we can grow our own food

This is the wertical garden http://grupodiezeaexpresionplasticayvisual.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/caixaforum-madrid.html
The museum was a power station and in that square where now there is a garden, there was a gas station only a few years ago

Wow! That vertical garden is amazing! What a great thing to do to an old gas station site.

CC

snip [i]My main problem was the peat moss I bought, it was too brown, I think it should be more "blonde", but not sure. I think the peat moss we have here in europe is from Germany and the Baltic area, and not sure if it's the same kind as the peat moss you have in North America. I've seen a lot of videos SFG in Youtube and the peat moss was different to mine one.[/i

The peat sold in N. American all comes from Canada. I think the peat from the Europe will be fine and that the different color is probably due to the types of plants and the minerals in the local area.

I found this to be very interesting as it indicates most peat from Germany is put to hortacultural use.

http://www.peatsociety.org/peatlands-and-peat/global-peat-resources-country

Kay

For those of you who asked me to show some pictures of my green roof, here you have it:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t13548-square-foot-gardening-on-a-roof-top#136345