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From: warren@pluto.UUCP (Warren Burstein)
Newsgroups: net.garden
Subject: gardening on a rooftop
Message-ID: <265@pluto.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 29-Dec-85 00:03:40 EST
Article-I.D.: pluto.265
Posted: Sun Dec 29 00:03:40 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Dec-85 22:24:41 EST
Distribution: na
Organization: The Mayhem Institute
Lines: 21

For the last two years I've been growing vegetables on the roof
of a small apartment building, about 20 8-gallon crates.  Mostly
I've been following "The Apartment Farmer" by Duane Newcomb.  The
beans and peas are pretty successful, but the tomatos never
get any larger than cherry tomatos (maybe I should only plant cherries
so as not to be dissapointed), the zucchini is not very happy,
and the corn was a dismal failure (I didn't *really* expect it to work).
The strawberries grew lots of runners but few flowers and no fruit.
In past, I used the run-of-the-mill seed packages (priced 55 cents,
sold 6 for 99 at the 99-cent store)  This year I'm going to look
thru the seed catalogs for varieties designed for limited space.

Birds ate a lot of things (whole plants!) until I covered each box with
a cone of chicken wire.  I don't think urban birds would be deterred by
scarecrows or flashing aluminum foil.

If anyone is doing the anything similar, let's compare notes.
-- 

The Maxwell R. Mayhem Institute for Quandary Requiem and Maternal Sciamachy
Accept no substitutes.