New rooftop garden in central Mexico!

I signed a lease recently with a building owner who's starting a rooftop garden for the benefit of our little community.

We're in Guanajuato state in central Mexico, which means a lot of sun during most of the year and rare freezing temperatures. Even now, in January, temps rarely fall below around 40 F at night... and soar to 65-75 F during the day.

The wooden planters are handmade by my landlord and his school-age daughters.

My biggest contribution so far has been a composting tumbler, about which more elsewhere. I bug my neighbors nicely for veggie scraps like a very polite raccoon.  And I'm acting "compost expert" although I've informed them that I'm a newb. :-)

We're growing herbs, chiles, leafy greens, a few flowers, and tomatoes. We stay away from chemical / industrial solutions in favor of the aforementioned compost, sprays of diatomaceous earth / neem where warranted, and so forth.

And there's a water supply on the rooftop so we don't have to be lugging buckets.

I'm so excited to have simply fallen into this situation.

If there's interest here I'll keep telling the story!

Very cute!
Not carrying water is definitely a good thing! And I gather you may be about a zone hotter than me, does it just get dry in the winter? In summer you may be watering multiple times a day-- but there are worse things than being obliged to visit the plants multiple times a day.
I look forward to seeing how it goes.

Tereza Okava wrote:Very cute!
Not carrying water is definitely a good thing! And I gather you may be about a zone hotter than me, does it just get dry in the winter? In summer you may be watering multiple times a day-- but there are worse things than being obliged to visit the plants multiple times a day.
I look forward to seeing how it goes.

I've been here only since November, but they tell me it gets nice and hot here in the summer (and in fact it already seems to be warming up). However, it's a dry heat, nothing like the Yucatan.

I love it here so far and I'm looking forward to exploring more once it's safe to do so.

Sitting here on a grey, cold day with snow flurries in northern Minnesota, allow me to express my .... envy....?? ;-)

I had plans long ago after graduate school of working at the Univ. Guanajuato (in Irapuato..?), -- just didn't work out, but seemed like a great location.  Looks like a great opportunity to try the full roof-top regime of composting, water harvest, food production, and yield analysis.  It will be interesting to see what grows well in your containers and under that microclimate.  I would be curious if frost still visits the rooftop (how many stories above the ground?) the same way it does at ground level where you are at.  Of course maize is so legendary to the region,.....do you think you might be able to give that a stab either for fresh eating, flour, or popped?  Might vining beans or squash be trellised in some way that would provide acceptable yield without using too much space?  Anyway, nice looking start to your time there....Looks like fun!

PS:  With my love of power equipment, you will forgive me for zooming in on the white Mitsubishi pick-up truck (  :-)  ) .... a nice looking vehicle that we likely can't buy here in the States....  (sigh..)

John Weiland wrote:Sitting here on a grey, cold day with snow flurries in northern Minnesota, allow me to express my .... envy....?? ;-)

I had plans long ago after graduate school of working at the Univ. Guanajuato (in Irapuato..?), -- just didn't work out, but seemed like a great location.  Looks like a great opportunity to try the full roof-top regime of composting, water harvest, food production, and yield analysis.  It will be interesting to see what grows well in your containers and under that microclimate.  I would be curious if frost still visits the rooftop (how many stories above the ground?) the same way it does at ground level where you are at.  Of course maize is so legendary to the region,.....do you think you might be able to give that a stab either for fresh eating, flour, or popped?  Might vining beans or squash be trellised in some way that would provide acceptable yield without using too much space?  Anyway, nice looking start to your time there....Looks like fun!

PS:  With my love of power equipment, you will forgive me for zooming in on the white Mitsubishi pick-up truck (  :-)  ) .... a nice looking vehicle that we likely can't buy here in the States....  (sigh..)

I have to operate on the principle of "keep it (very) simple." So if I get kale and cabbage growing AND good compost made as my contribution to the garden, I'll consider it a huge win.

We might venture out into trellised plants at some point, but not right now... unless my landlord's family goes forward with that on their own.

It is in fact a great location as you said! I can't wait to explore it more, but of course mobility is limited at the moment.

A few more pics: kale is coming along!

Today I'll plant some spinach in one of those shallow containers, although I may have to move the container to the shade eventually.