Text and photographs are © by Ellen Spector Platt & Ellen Zachos, all rights reserved.


Monday, December 7, 2009

DON'T CRY FOR ME, NEW YORK CITY

©Alan & Linda Detrick, Ellen Spector Platt design

I used to enjoy my roof garden. It looked liked this (above), and this (below)and this.Now it looks like this.
Five bad men came with two jacks on wheels.
They moved all 80 containers to one edge of the roof.Now this is what I have.On the far left above, the
coral bark Japanese
maple that I had care-
fully positioned in front
of a north-facing brick
wall is totally exposed to
the elements. The drip
irrigation system has
been shut down since
early September. Will
the maple ever look like
this again? (right) Will
my other cut leaf Jap-
anese maple survive?
Or the roses, which
I had to cut down by
more than 2/3rds? How
will the hydrangea
make it depending
solely on rain?

The cause of the up-
heaval was leaks from
the gutters of the roof
into apartments below.
NO, not caused by the
garden but by shoddy
materials in the origin-
al construction ten
years ago. Wouldn't
you know that the
roofing company is no
longer in business? So
it's remove the iron
fence, redo the gut-
ters, paint the fence,
repave the roof and
while we're at it,
check and repoint
loose bricks on the
side of the building,
using 'my' garden as
the staging area for
scaffolding.

Some shrubs are
already dead but I'll
spare you the
pictures. Some of the long wooden containers that have lasted for over ten years might disintegrate during their final move back into their rightful positions.
But gardeners are optimistic and the sight of several roses in bloom the day after Thanksgiving was thrilling. Here's the ever ready, willing, and able 'Knock- out' trying to cheer me up. Just wait 'til next year.

4 comments:

Urban Gardens said...

Better a flood now than in the spring or summer...Oh I sure hope they make it right so you can have your beautiful garden again in the spring!

Shady Gardener said...

I'm so sorry... Hopefully it doesn't take long. However, at MY house today - we had snow. There's nothing green. No bad men, just Winter. ;-)

Georgia said...

Sending best wishes for your garden.

Louise @ Buddy Garden said...

Oh I'm sorry I hope you're garden goes back to normal soon. But on the good side, it's better to happen now than during gardening season.


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