The Rooftop Growing Guide

Another gardening book?

Yep! I'm pretending to be a Sim, in the hopes that reading enough books about a subject will transform me into a master gardener before I ever touch dirt. Remember, I'm also working from a disadvantage: ignorance in gardening presents itself first as a black thumb. At least I'm hoping it's my ignorance of proper gardening techniques that murders the plants, and not a genetic predisposition to screwing up green spaces. 

Originally, I ordered this book to help me with my container garden, because obviously a rooftop garden means a container garden on the roof. At least, that's what I thought. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that is not always the case! It should've been obvious to me from the title and picture on the cover, but Annie Novak meant nothing so small as a container when she wrote this book. After all, look at the flat roof on that building and the size of the plants atop it!

I think this book is aimed primarily at people living in dense urban zones where there aren't many green spaces. Basically, since real estate is scarce and high cost, they instead turn to their roofs. It makes sense, really. On the roof of a building, you don't have to worry as much about whether your building or the next is perpetually casting shade over your plants, or if you have enough space in your tiny backyard to plant all you want. What if you want to plant something in particular, but the soil conditions in your area are not optimal for your new green darling? Rooftop gardening is the perfect opportunity to create your own optimal growing settings.

If only it were as easy as seeds + dirt + water. My strawberries
refuse to grow, and it makes me sad!

Before you get to thinking that it's as easy as throwing some dirt on your roof and some seeds on top of that, let me just tell you: No, not quite. It is still gardening, but with a few twists! These include whether or not your roof can even properly support a garden! Let's face it, buildings are made to sustain a certain amount of weight. Soil, plants with their roots, and especially the water intended to make everything grow, is likely to add weight the building may not support. That issue is fairly straightforward, but also stop to think about how you'll irrigate your rooftop garden, or how the roof microclimate will affect your plants! Yeah, I went there: I said "microclimate." No, rooftop gardening is decidedly not as straightforward as tossing some dirt and seeds up there and hoping for the best.

At this point, you're probably wishing I'd just get to the point and tell you how it would benefit you to get this book. First and foremost: Do you have a flat roof to grow things on? If you do, you will find this book interesting and helpful, whether you intend to have a small herb garden or a full-blown farm. The writing is engaging, and Novak has anecdotes from other rooftop gardeners to augment her own knowledge. Chances are that if you have a question, she will likely address it or has some other resource to offer. She covers topics ranging from assessing your rooftop —can I even grow here?— and pests, to choosing whether to grow in containers or greenhouses, or green roofs. And of course, there is also the ever present chapter on planning your garden. Yes, if I've learned anything from all these gardening books, it's that besides remembering to actually water your plants, the most important thing you can do is to plan your garden.

However, since I do not have a flat roof on which to grow things, I found The Rooftop Growing Guide to be theoretically interesting, but ultimately impractical. A more general gardening book would have suited me better, but that is not Annie Novak's fault. So if you have a flat roof, I absolutely recommend this book. And if you don't, you might still find it interesting to read.

I received a complimentary copy of The Rooftop Growing Guide from Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Water-Saving Garden: Because weather doesn't always happen in California

Fun fact: the state of California has every type of climate in the world except for tropical. Pretty cool, huh? That means if you travel a few hours in any direction, you'll find yourself in a different climate than where you started without even needing to leave the state. Unfortunately, for the last several years, we've been suffering through a severe drought. This makes me nervous: I've never wanted to live in the desert. My favorite color is green, not brown, and I love playing in water. So water conservation is high on my list of priorities. The Water-Saving Garden, by Pam Penick, is a book I picked up for free from Blogging for Books (in exchange for a fair and honest review), in the hopes of cultivating a kick-ass garden without wasting water. Let me tell you a thing or five about what I've learned...

The Water-Saving Garden is broken up into five different parts: inspiration, retaining water, planting, making you see things that aren't there, and recommended plants. That is a lot to pack into one book, but Penick does a great job of it. The inspiration portion features multiple gardens and highlights the different features that make them drought resistant. This portion is more photos than text, but it's a great way to start— giving you ideas as to what is possible.

My favorite parts in this book are probably the second part and third parts: retaining and planting. Basically: plan your garden. Before reading this book, I hadn't thought that planning a garden was more than deciding what plants to put in the ground or where I would place them relative to each other. That is certainly part of it, but you also want to consider how you can make it an inviting or relaxing space to be in, how you're going to water it, and how you can retain the maximum amount of rainfall on your property. Are you interested in holding rainwater to use during dry spells? There's a section for that in this book. What about preventing that rain from just going down the gutter and instead replenishing the ground water? That's in here too! I want to say that the basic premise of this book is: don't just reduce the amount of water you throw outside from your taps. Tap into the water that's already in the ground!

Thirdly, a chance to get dirty: Plant your garden!

So now you have a bunch of cacti planted in your yard so you won't have to water them?

Actually, right now I have a patch of dirt that needs to be cleared of debris. But to your insinuation that I would have a yard full of cacti I say, “Hah!” And no. While cacti and other succulents are certainly water thrifty plants, they are absolutely not the only choice available if you want to conserve water in your garden. You know what isn't really a choice in this type of garden? Lawns.

Lawns are the Humvees of the plant world —they're resource guzzlers, require a lot of time and maintenance, and don't look all that great anyway.

GASP! How can you say that about lawns?! It's the American way!

I know a lot of people picture a house with a white picket fence and a beautiful lawn as an integral part of the American dream but I think we can do better. There are other ways of doing things! And like it or not, the fact remains that during a drought, your lawn is going to wither and die because the roots just don't grow deep enough. They require a lot of water, you have to mow them frequently, they get weedy if you blink at them — they are just a lot more work than they're worth. If your main goal is to conserve water: lose the lawn. If you can't bear to lose the lawn, reduce it. If you decide to install artificial turf, lose my number.

Wanna tell us how you really feel about fake grass?

That's a post for a different day and a different blog. My point is that lawn is boring, lacks creativity, and takes a lot of effort for not much pay-off. There are alternative grasses and ground covers available to create visual interest, that thrive on less water, and give you an open green space if that's what you're after. There are wildflowers, trees, shrubs, and ground covers that are drought hardy. It doesn't have to all be about cacti or other succulents: we have options if we take the time to find them. I suppose that's the biggest deterrent for a lot of people having a garden instead of a lawn. You can set a lawn down and it looks like a lawn right away, but it takes more maintenance time later on. It might take you more time upfront to plan and set up a drought-hardy garden, but it will mostly take care of itself afterward. After all, it's meant to thrive on the amount of water that falls from the sky instead of you hosing it down.

What about this “making you see things that aren't there” section?

The section is actually about creating the illusion of water where there may not be any. This can be achieved by using stones, cascading plants, a simple water feature, etc. — anything that evokes an image of lakes, the sea, or other water by using plants.

The final section in this book is dedicated to 101 plants for water-saving gardens. Because like puppies, 100 just isn't enough. Gotta throw in that extra one.

And there you have it! The Water-Saving Garden: How to grow a gorgeous garden with a lot less water by Pam Penick is 223 pages of beautifully illustrated advice on how to grow a garden while conserving resources. If you have any aspirations toward creating an inviting outdoor space, I highly recommend it!

The Bee-Friendly Garden

Click here to find me on Amazon!

I have far too many hobbies. Along with reading and reviewing books, I also crochet, draw, write, and sometimes I try to garden. Unfortunately, I suck at it. If you don't think that keeping a plant alive is particularly difficult, just hand it to me and I'll happily demonstrate. 

Maybe it's something about your karma?

Let's not get personal. Maybe I know nothing about the proper conditions to keep a thing alive in a pot. However, I do know how to read, and I'm not so terrible at research. One of my motto's is "When in doubt: READ A BOOK!"

You don't just watch a youtube video?

I do that too, but it doesn't fit the theme today, and for this particular hobby I would literally be watching grass grow. I picked up The bee-friendly Garden from Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and honest review. As someone who loves honey and is concerned about the decline in bee populations, I thought this book could help me choose appropriate, hardy, plants that would survive my black thumb while also providing nutrients for our friends the bees.

Speaking of our friends the bees—I had no idea there were so many different kinds! Typically, when I think of bees, I picture bumblebees and think they're also honeybees, but those are actually distinct species. You know where I learned that? From this book!

Duh...

Hey, I was expecting a lot of information about plants that attract bees and maybe how to design your garden. That is included in here, but there's so much more to it! The first chapter is dedicated to various bee profiles: their genus and species, common names, habitats, and their preferred types of flowers (because bees have favorite foods too). Chapters two and three talk about the different plants you can include in your bee-friendly garden. We're not just talking flowers, either. The main point I pulled from this book is that in order to have a healthy garden for healthy bees, variety is key. Variety of plants—annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees—will extend the length of time your garden blooms, thus providing nourishment for your friendly neighborhood bees for longer. Authors Kate Frey and Gretchen LeBuhn also stress the importance of including native plants in your garden. These make it likelier that local bees will visit (and pollinate) your plants, but also increases the health of your garden. Local plants, if you think about it, are hardy weeds we like. They'll make it less likely for weeds we don't like to take over our garden areas.

Did you start your bee-friendly garden yet?

As previously mentioned, I have something of a black thumb. You have to look really close, because generally my thumb looks peach, but the point is that it isn't green. So, I have yet to start my garden. However, I intend to plan it using the the regional lists of plants and the section for "designing your garden." So that's in the works. I'd love to show you all pictures of my beautiful, living garden when I make it happen, but that'll be a while.

Obviously you really like this book. Will I?

Quite possibly. You may want to buy a copy of this book if:

1. You enjoy gardening and want to help improve bee populations
2. You like flowers or food
3. Beautiful pictures of outdoor landscapes make you happy
4. Or maybe you just want to learn more about bees, their habitats, and what sorts of plants will draw them in.

There you have it! The bee-friendly Garden: I'm happy to have it and I think you would be too!