We are finally getting settled in our new house. And with warm weather, it is time to set up the gardening here.
In the beginning….
Yup, that’s right – it is a whole lot of nothing. But that is the beauty of the thing. It is a full, non-shared rooftop deck that we can devote totally to gardening. Yea! That is such a luxury in Chicago; there is nothing to fix or re-do from previous owners, because the house is brand new. And even better, there is a second deck just like this one in the front of the house where we have some tables and a seating area so the entire back deck can be entirely devoted 100% to gardening (and bees, but that is the next step – more on that later.)
The first year involves a lot of work that won’t have to be repeated, including setup of a gardening work table, setting up the raised beds and filling them with dirt. The raised box setup required hauling four very long and very heavy boxes up to the third floor, which was not much fun. My spousal unit, however, is very adept at gauging how to tilt things to carry them up steep and fairly narrow flights of stairs so that we don’t bang up the walls too much. Anyway, once up there, the setup was pretty quick and easy. So now we have this:
The ceramic pots will have flowers and other bee/butterfly attracting plants. The cedar beds will be entirely herbs and vegetables.
Next step is getting the dirt up to the roof. We have calculated the dirt requirements and it will take 70 cu. ft. of material to fill these planters and the ceramic planters on the front deck. Yikes! That is a lot of going up and down the stairs, so we are going to get some help with that hauling project.
More pics to come when the dirt is in!
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