Hot, full searing sun, and blowing wind cause quick water evaporation; sounds like the perfect spot for a garden right? Well, thats where my new garden is located: on the roof. As my skin and future oncologist I'm sure will tell you, too much sun is bad! I've had some blistering, searing sun burns in my life, but the last time I was in Mexico, two years ago, I got sun poisining. While sunning myself on the same roof, I absorbed too much sun. It was painful in every sense of the word; I was cooked well done. Two years later, I haven't learned any better... My skin is fine (for now), I bathe in lotion more than I do water. The lesson I have not learned is that the climate on the roof is intense!
Naively, I assumed the strong, full sun would be a boon to my seeds as they sprouted and grew. It wasn't. The sun and wind took the water as fast as I poured it out. Accepting defeit, I carried all of the egg cartons containing planted seeds down to the narrow courtyard that spans the back of the house. The courtyard gets about 15 minutes of direct sun in the afternoon as the sun streaks across the sky. The rest of the day, it stays cool in the 50's and 60's. Neither are ideal: the roof is way too hot and the courtyard is shaded and cool. The courtyard being less extreme, I left the seeds there for a week and nothing grew. I became impatient.
A light bulb flashed over head and I chided myself for not thinking of it sooner: place the egg cartons in the big plastic bags the soil came in and place them on the roof. It was the perfect solution to my water problem. Within and hour on the roof, tiny green dots appeared on the surface of the soil. I vented the bag and went for shelter inside the house. Mid afternoon I returned to roof to check on my plants which I was smuggly sure had already out-grown the bag. They were dead; the green dots were all brown.
In shock and disbelief, I quickly moved all of the cartons to the small patch of roof shaded by the water tank in the afternoon. I angrily dared all of the seeds to be dead and cursed the sun and my stupidity.
For a few days it was difficult to get out of bed. I grieved the death of my garden, but stubbornly climbed up to the roof to look at egg cartons full of dirt in a plastic bag. Everyday, I vented the bag and sprinkled water inside like someting would grow. I prayed for just one seed to sprout. Just one, I would be happy with any plant to tend.
Then, yesterday, a miracle. I noticed a green dot and opened the bag as eagerly as a child shredding wrapping paper at Christmas. I pulled out each egg carton and placed my eye directly on the soil to inspect it. The green dot I saw was an herb, my guess is basil. But there were more! At least a dozen microscopic green herb shoots just breaking the soil. I was elated, but nothing compared to the feeling of my heart stopping for a second and then beating twice as fast when I saw one sprout each of the two tomato varieties I planted. One by one, each carton surprised me with at least one seedling of each vegetable I planted.
Stubborn perservearance paid off, I narrowly won the first battle. However, the war has just begun. The sun will get stronger as we move into summer and (hopefully) my plants should grow too big to live in the shadow of the water tank. I am already devising a battle plan for keeping the young plants alive: bring it on sun...
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