Roots on the Roof: Everything's coming up cucumbers

Last we checked in, our rather heroic efforts at establishing a little beachhead of green growing goodness on our windy and wet wooftop had been woefully unsuccessful. The majority of the seedlings we lovingly raised from scratch had bitten the dust, or rather, the mud, unable to withstand the cold and rain that greeted them as they made their debut high above the tenements of Bushwick. As we surveyed at our barren buckets, it was hard to envision starting again, or ever getting anything to take.

But out of nowhere, a quiet refrain rose up in my head, growing louder and more persistent, till it was ringing out over the rooftops, ruffling the feathers on the pigeons roosting across the way, waiting for their chance to ascend into a swirling column of avian synchronicity.

It went a little something like this:

What've we got? We've got heart! All you really need is heart!

When the odds are sayin' "You'll never win," that's when the grin should start!

We've got hope! We don't sit around and mope!

Not a solitary sob do we heave, mister 'cause we've got hope.

(Everything I need to know in life I learned from musical theater, incidentally. One free pint of home-grown cucumbers to anyone who can name that tune!) So hope sprung eternal, and we decided to wait it out and try again. Zack donated a couple of hearty pepper plants, I picked up some new cucumber sprouts on the street, Sean's dad threw some beans and herbs our way, and our tomato seedlings got a little more hair on their chests. We replanted, and watered, and waited, and to our amazement, leaves unfurled, stems grew thick, tiny flowers appeared. Miraculous! June flew by, and now we've got a sturdy little garden, some promising green veggies taking shape, and some lessons learned. And so the experiment continues...