Sedum – The Garden Lady

A person by the name of Jay made a comment on the post 35 Acid Loving Plants (with Photos) about Sedum. I wonder if it’s the same Jay who made the nice video above.Â TheGardenLady will respond briefly to his comment, which is this:

Most varieties of sedum, a 3 to 5 inch high ground cover that bloom in shades of white, pink, red, purple, yellow, or orange, as well as one everblooming red named â€œDragonâ€™s Bloodâ€. These are shade loving plants, low maintenance, drought tolerant, traffic resilient easily grown plants. They will also grow very well in full to partial sunâ€¦very versatile plants. They do well by themselves or mixed with other shade lovers such as Hostas, which come in so many leaf colors now and which love acidic soil. So Hosta would be happy with your conifer tree which is also acid loving.. happy gardening.

Sedum are low maintenance, drought tolerant, easily grown plants. And many are hardy in Temperature Zones 4 to 9.

Jay says that sedum are shade loving plants that grow well with hostas. This is not quite accurate. Some will do well in the shade. But the majority of Sedum prefer sun or at least partial sun. So if you do buy Sedum for your garden, please be sure that you read the label or ask the seller which kind you have bought- whether it is for the sun or can take the shade.

Jay also says that Sedum are traffic resilient. Some are, some are not. See here.

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Terrace Roof Garden Img_1126a by Lanterna

TheGardenLady received this question from Michelle.

I live in NYC, and would love to plant flowers and herbs outside my apt. Outside our kitchen window is a blacktop roof. I’ve tried to grow basil and parsley, but they never stay moist enough–sun is too strong. But, I would like to build something bigger to include many flowers and herbs. What would you suggest?

What a lovely idea to use the roof for a garden. However, in your case, living in NYC, one has to be concerned about the weight of plants on an old roof. Your landlord might object. If you think the landlord does not object, TheGardenLady recommends using light weight things for planting.

Plastic pots weigh less and don’t dry out as easily as clay pots or aren’t as heavy as ceramic pots.Â Also, if you will be watering the plants, you have to be sure that the water will run off and not seep into the roof – down into someone else’s apartment. You don’t want plants that need a lot of watering.

Attempting to grow herbs is a good idea because herbs do love sun. Most herbs come from the Mediterranean area where they get lots of sun which is needed for the herbs to have strong herbal flavors. But growing in a field is different than growing on a roof. TheGardenLady imagines that it is probably due to the blacktop roof that your herbs are drying out too quickly. Getting all that heat from the sun plus the heat from the black bottom under the pots might create too intense a heat and cause the small amount of soil in the pot to dry out too quickly.

Continue reading “Creating a Roof Garden in NYC”