Roof top garden

Last evening was my Herb Societies 25Th anniversary. We celebrated at our local college where they had a roof top garden put in. We also have a herb garden there for the people to enjoy.
The live garden on the roof should last 50 years with very little maintenance.

This is a portion of the gardens. They were planted in a checker board pattern (looks like a nine-patch to a quilter) using different types of sedum. They are a succulent plant that hold a lot of water. They are very efficient plants for water conservation.

close up of the 9 patch

One small area also included some native grasses.

Down from the roof garden through a court yard is the Sensory Herb garden. We planted it years ago and maintain it for the college. A lot of the different herbs are planted in these tall sewer pipes.

Clever idea using these as planters, each plant identified with markers.

A pretty sundial in the middle.

This morning as I was leaving for work I noticed these cute mushrooms in our lawn, they are paper thin and look like little mix drink umbrellas. I wish I would have planted them in a pot, right now my husband is home mowing the lawn and they'll probably on their way to being chopped up, darn.

Another cute plant I have is this cinnamon basil. The stems and flowers are deep purple. It smells wonderful and they use the leaves in Asian cooking.

This is my rose scented geranium, there's many different varieties of the scented geraniums from apple, coconut, rose, pineapple etc. Their not grown for their flowers as their very small, just for their scent. I learned last night you can make a wonderful lemonade punch from the leaves. You pick a handful, rinse and pour boiling water over them. Let them seep, discard the leaves and add the liquid to a pink lemonade. Last night at our party we had lemonade punch made this way using lavender blossoms, it was real good.

Deb asked about using birch bark in Alaska for natural dying, I sure it will be great, just don't use too old, dried out bark (years ago I tried some and didn't get much). The books say you should get a pink with it, mine so far is a wonderful light peachy yellow. I still have it soaking in the hot sun, I'm trying a little solar dying. Next week I'll show you.