Fiddler on the Roof: An Experiment In Roof Top Container Gardening (Part 2)

In my last post, I discussed why I decided to experiment with hydroponic gardening on my roof.  In this one, I'll address some of the challenges and benefits I've noticed in the weeks since I began this project.

Challenges:

1. Access - my roof was never build to accommodate a garden and lacks convenient access. (You know, a set of stairs that leads to the roof.) My work-around is to use a painters step ladder; it does the trick, but is far less safe than a built-in set of stairs.  Initially, I thought that trips to the roof would be relatively infrequent, but in practice, I need to check the hydroponic tanks, help trellis the plants etc. and I find myself on the roof every day.  If this experiment proves productive, I will need think about adding an external set of stairs.
2. Water & Nutrient Solution - To get water to the roof, I carry a hose with me when I go up he ladder.  A tad inconvenient since I use the same hose to water other parts of my normal garden. There's a better solution which I will implement in the next few weeks; specifically, I'll add a splitter to the spigot and run a second hose to the roof which can stay up there permanently.  In addition, the hydroponic nutrient solution I use comes in gallon sized containers.  These are too heavy to bring up and down the ladder continuously, so I pre-measure the solutions and carry them up in small plastic bottles.
3. Trellising - The challenge with trellising is that normally you drive stakes into the ground to support the trellis.  This is not an option on the roof for obvious reasons.  To address this logistical issue, I built stands out of 2x4 pressure treated lumber and attached garden stakes to the stands.  Building the stands and carrying them to the roof was a pain in the rump.  Thank goodness it's a one time investment.  

Benefits of Roof Gardening:

1. An Open Frontier - I have plenty of space on the roof which has allowed me to add 20 squash, melon, and cucumber plants that I never would have had space for in my traditional garden. This has allowed me to grow some wonderful veggies: Blue Hubbard, Black Futsu, Galeux D'eysines, and Waltham Butternut squashes, Delikatese, Hmong Red and Beit Alpha cucumbers and Charentais and Ali Baba melons.  Many of these have already fruited and are on their way towards producing.  Moreover, if I decided to expand, I have plenty of room,  I could easily double or triple the containers with no problem.
2. Pests Be Gone - we'll see what happens as the summer progresses, but so far, no nasties on my plants.
3. You Are My Sunshine - Plenty of sunshine on the roof with no trees or other obstructions to cast shadows.  Additionally, the white roofing material reflects the sunlight back towards the plants.  I believe this is resulting in faster growth.

So far, I've been pretty happy with the way this experiment is working out.  Once the harvest is in, I'll do a final post to let you know if this mad experiment was worth the effort.