I was thinking, there’s a ton of rooftop space on top of nyc apartment buildings, and it’s often pretty easy to get onto the roofs. Are there any potted plants i can leave up there that need zero care and are good for local pollinators or native wildlife or whatever?
They’d need to be small and light enough to climb up with.
Ideas?
Well if you want to really help pollinators putting in a little more care than zero will pay big dividends.
I’d say build or buy a planter, 4’ ish or smaller, lug some good dirt up, and use an ollas in the center. An ollas is an unglazed terracotta pot that you bury in the centerof the planter with the spout sticking above the dirt. then fill with water once or twice a week or so and the water slowly leeches out and waters the planter.
Pick out any plant that flowers that you like thats labeled as a perrenial and full sun. Some will be labeled as pollinator friendly. But the bees in my area go nuts for anything, cucumber pepper I had a hummer go for bell pepper flowers once.
Get like 4-6 plants for a 4’ planter, depending on how big they get. Plant em. Water em real good for two weeks to get the roots established. Like every day water em for two weeks. Then you can go to using just the ollas every so offen and some extra water in heat waves. After 4-6 months sprinkle in some fertilizer to help keep the nutrients in the soil good.
Over winter, take the ollas out to avoid a freeze. Put back in spring. Probably a 2L ollas or small is all you need.
If you really can’t be bothered, try hardy hens and chicks. They are small plants that come in lots of variety and make small baby plants. You can pinch off a baby plant and stick it in a random rockwall and it will probably survive. They aren’t gonna help a pollinator though, more ornamental. Or get into cactuses.
There’s always Cannabis. I’ve heard the local wildlife loves that plant
I bet dandelions would do well. Pretty easy to find seeds adapted to the local environment too, you can probably find some at the nearest park.
Potted plants will need water and occasional fertilizer.
That’s not true. There’s tons of plants that grow gangbusters in unattended street planters, and heck even cracks in the sidewalk
Water flows down. There is more shade at street level, and it is more humid. The bustle of life brings detritus to these cracks, providing nutrients.
The top of a tall building is going to be more arid, and-unless you have some way to attract birds-a limited amount of nutrients.
Instead of a pot, consider a trough or elevated garden.
I suggest finding companion plants that go with plants called out in these types of sites: https://www.nycgovparks.org/learn/trees-and-plants/native-plants-of-new-york-city. Call small suburban greenhouses and chat people up to find hardy shrubs. Consider collecting rainwater and putting the distribution on a timer over night.
Attract birds with fruiting plants and pollinators. Bird poop, insect carcasses, etc. If you can compost, that will help, too. Worms and food waste will also help.
Good suggestions, thanks!
A trough or elevated bed or ongoing maintenance isn’t possible in the kind of quick hit unofficial guerilla action that i can do.
The thing that got me thinking it is that I’ve seen years-abandoned pots on nyc rooftops that have wild plants that grew themselves there. So the conditions (whatever they are) can easily support unattended plant life, so the question is which ones will work there that are good for pollinators or the environment?
They’re in the ground though. Maybe some weeds could survive in a pot but it’s a much more challenging environment than even a pavement crack.
That said if you can get a container big enough that it won’t dry out between rain events you may have success.
Zillions of wild plants grow extremely well in unattended planter pots in nyc. They’re all over the place.
And there’s no such thing as “weeds”. A weed just means a plant that grew itself in a spot where a person didn’t want it to be. A weed is just a plant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed
When people set out empty planters of soil they always wind up growing lush with random plants. The question isn’t what plants can grow by themselves there, because that does itself. -
My question is what plants can i plant there that would be especially good for the environment?
I know what a weed is. I’m not using it as a derogatory term. It’s just a perfect description of the kind of plants that might work here.
I would contact a local native plant society and see what “weedy” native species are going to be best adapted to a hot, dry, windy rooftop.
