Project Patio

Living in New York City, we have lots of buildings, lots of asphalt, and of course, Central Park along with other smaller parks. Even though the parks are easily accessible to us, I craved a little piece of green that I would call my own. Hence the birth of Project Patio.

It took awhile for husband-to-be and I to clear our rooftop from all the junk that had collected out there from previous tenants. There was a file cabinet, a disintegrated sofa with rusty springs (hello tetanus), a rusty and leaky can of tar, broken glass, nails, among other things. We were able to clean out a lot, and looked into putting those modular decks out there, but the cost was a little too steep. On a tight budget, we decided to cover the rooftop with nothing other than astroturf. Along with the car rental and a quick trip to Home Depot, we spent around $300. It is now safe for us and for our dogs to go out there and actually enjoy it! That was Phase I of Project Patio!

Phase II now consists of me successfully tending to plants! It's going to be a very long learning lesson for me, since I literally know nothing about gardening. Well, knew nothing about gardening - I've been researching lots over the internet and some books. Now I know just a little bit ~

I guess Phase III will be when I have full confidence on taking care of my plants - I hope to add lots more, but will do it slowly. As I look through various nursery websites, I am so tempted to buy all these different plants in one shot, but I know that it will be too much for me to handle right now. I'll take baby steps, and hope to have a great rooftop garden in no time!