We’ve arrived in midsummer, the time were it’s simply gorgeous to spent time in our roof garden. Now that I’ve repotted all my seedlings, I mostly have to maintain. That means watering and fertilizing the plants, cutting dead leaves and sweeping the floor every once in a while. Thankfully we didn’t have any major plant diseases or pest infestations so far. We haven’t always been so lucky! This year, the plants suffered from the excessive heat in the first weeks of July, though. I’ve been thinking about buying a sun sail to keep out the worst midday heat, but I worry we’ll lose to much light.

My newest additions are a couple of flowers. To be honest, I always get a bit annoyed when I have to take care of flowering plants. I feel like I have to constantly cut off dead flowers or it will look untidy. On the other hand, flowers instantly make a place look so much better if taken care of well. I love the red periwinkles, by the way, their flowers look so cute! I also planted some old sunflowers seeds in empty spots and they actually sprouted. I’m looking forward to seeing them bloom, sunflowers are my favourite.

Otherwise I’m seeing the first fruits of my labour. Literally. Obviously, with a tiny roof garden you can’t expect the harvest will make you self-sufficient. You’ll get a couple of fruits and vegetables, though. I always mix them under storebought foodstuffs, but that I don’t have enough of them doesn’t mean I’m not inordinarily proud of my homegrown products, haha. The exception are tomatoes. If you purchase plants that are meant for balconies and pots, you’ll get quite a bit of product over the summer months.

We’ve also been making a lot of drinks with mint leaves from our orange mint. I mostly dry the leaves to make tea with it, but Philip makes a variety of longdrinks and cocktails using fresh mint. His newest discovery is Limoncello Spritz. It’s a variation of Aperol Spritz but with limoncello instead, obviously. I love it because it’s such a refreshing and fun summer drink!