On the Roof, It's Peaceful As Can Be

Here are some photos of flowers and a short video of visitor activity on our rooftop garden. This year we planted in mid June rather than the end of May. Then due to intense rainfall throughout late June and most of July we had to wait to do our big chore of staining the deck. We needed to wait until August before the deck was completely dry for a four day period. Then had to move EVERYTHING off the main deck in order to scrub, wash, and then stain the entire deck. Joe and I did it all alone. No one has any interest in what goes on up on our rooftop deck. There are six other apartments in our building and for the past three years we rarely encounter anyone up there. As the years go by it continues to be a private retreat for us even though it's open to everyone who lives here.












We planted sunflowers and assorted wildflowers (many of which I still don't know the names) from seeds. Everything else was purchased as small single plants from a local nursery. This is the first year that everything has exploded in color and expanded to large numbers of blooms. All of it continues to thrive now that we've reached September.



All summer long various butterflies, bumble bees and honey bees, and on occasion a hungry bird have stopped by. I spotted a goldfinch chowing down on sunflower seeds from one of the tallest flowers one afternoon back in August, but I didn't have my phone/camera with me so missed an opportunity to get a video of that. But here's a bit of bee activity for you.

Our Mexican Torch plant (above) had its first bloom only two days ago when in past years it was the very first flower to bloom and would last well into late September.  I don't think we'll have many more blooms on that plant because it's already beginning to cool down with temps rarely reaching 80.