new take on rooftop gardening

i posted a while back with some pics of my maze garden and the progress so far, and i have put a youtube video up as well and the link is here in one of my posts somewhere. in one thread, someone sugested that i get up on the roof and get some overhead pictures. well - i did! i have no problem climbing tall ladders, i have no problem walking around on rooftops, but MAN do i hate getting back on the ladder to come back down! here are some of the pictures that i took this afternoon from the top of my house.

the garden is doing so well! i have had 6 or so meals worth of bush beans, only a few cucumbers (having some pollination problems with them), HUNDREDS of tomatoes (TONS of coyote and champaign cherry tomatoes), lots of squash, zucchini, peppers, strawberries, and cant wait to have some of the corn.

here are the pics:

three sisters bed - (corn, zuchinni, crookneck squash, butternut squash, and pole beans) the corn in the back bed was shaded too much by the zucchini and did not make it.


bush beans, cukes (top and bottom of pic), carrots, marigolds, peppers, strawberries, pole beans (on windmill), watermelon and cantalope (top right), top left - mint, pepper mint, lantana, sun coleus, salvia.


front half of maze garden


back 2 beds - 25 heirloom tomato plants. some have done GREAT! some are around 10 feet tall. some are producing VERY little. I think that i may love tomato plants as much as i love tomatoes!


this is my absolute FAVORITE pic so far!


i have loved watching everyone elses gardens grow and progress so far. i hope you like these pics (i literally risked my neck to get them!!)

The risk was worth it---the pictures and the garden are GREAT!

You have such an amazing looking garden! I would love to get lost in that!

Thanks for climbing the roof. I am not sure I could have been so brave.

Love the pictures. It is the perfect way to show off your garden. Thanks for keeping us updated. Makes me feel like gardening more!

Your pictures are great! What are you using for tomato supports? Thanks for sharing your pics with us!

Thanks every body. it was pretty neat to get to see the whole garden from up there. it is nice to get a different perspective sometimes. while i was up there i thought that it would be cool to put a webcam up there to watch over the garden while i am away, but it would need to turn and zoom remotely, and for the money i would spend for that i could probably fill some of the new boxes i plan to build (got a bunch of free sawmill lumber from Craigslist).

@jsavolt - for the tomatoes in the bed that is farthest to the left, i used 6 foot tall hog wire, cut and rolled to make homemade cages, and the tomato bed next to that has a different type of home made cage. I use three 5 foot tomato stakes per plant, place them in a traingle and then spiral string around the stakes to make a cage. It is geat for storage at the end of the season, and easy to add pieces of string here and there to hold up any runaway plants. there are a few random 10 foot poles here and there placed in that bed to help keep the plants from falling into the walkways too far.

What a beautiful garden. I can see why you like your plants as much as your tomatoes. I have this garden stool, it looks like an old tractor seat on a rocker thing, I bring it to my garden and just putz with the birds for hours. I could get so lost in your garden. Sigh.

Lovely garden, wonderful photos!