Looks like it is working quite well, depends on how well the rice bag holds up I guess! I have another idea in case this fails. Since it is a good door you could make a small platform with 2 wheels on the bottom & attach it to door.Use a black coated wire & go around a couple of the vertical bars so it is secure. Then you set a couple of pots with plants in or make a planter a little shorter than door & set it on platform when you open the door the platform would roll with the door, be sure to get good wheels for this. Then you could try something different every year. Jan

I think its adorable, you could even hang a bag half way up and put herbs in it. They would grow well, and cover alot of area.

Great idea.

DD

If this works I think it will be pretty when they start to blossom. Get some pix when they do ok?

Good idea. And aren't nasturtian leaves the best? I love that lily pad look peeping through your lattice.
For a perennial you'd have to find something that can take its roots being above ground int he winter. Not sure what vine that would be...
I hope you post another pic later in the summer for a follow up!
kathy

Very cool idea! Can't wait to see what they look like all twined in the lattice!

What a neat idea!

What a unique idea! And I think sunnyca's idea is good, too. I love nasturtiums.

I have seen plants and flowers planted in heavy plastic bags. Once the plant is grown, it covers the bag. So your idea does work and is a much more frugal version. You will have to let us know how well it holds up over the summer and show its progress. Another cool thing about nasturtiums is the flowers and leaves are edible too. Neat idea!

O I didn't think about the rolling shelf idea with pots! Thanks... It probably won't work in that location due to the limited space since I need to fully open the door due to the narrow space and when I do open the door as much as I can I only have a few inches of space...so I needed something that was relatively "thin"... If you look at the small amount of brick to the left of the door (looking from inside the yard to the outside) that is the most amount of room I have to work with when the door is fully open...

(wall) ->: : I never really slam the door open but if i recall correctly, fully extended, the doorknob will hit the wall... I do remember accidentally compressing the soil inside the sack while opening and closing the door and chuckling as it squeezed the moisture out of the sack as if it were a sponge! then I realized what I did and got annoyed at my own sillyness...

btw here are some updates to my current "problem"...

APHIDS! Little black aphids at underneath the base of the lily pad like leaves of the nasturtium! I solved the problem with Lady Bugs...

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patrolling the perimeter of the nasturtium leaf!

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nom nom nom yummy aphids!
--Little Black spots to the left and in the mouth of the lady bug--
I just received (in the mail) 1500 living lady bugs of doom!

These pics are from a different part of my yard since I couldn't really maneuver myself into a position to be able to take a pic of the ones attacking the nasturtiums growing out of the rick sack.

Lol in regard to the heavy plastic bags... I'd like to do that on my garage roof as it looks barren and really is sad how much space is devoid of life on little NYC rooftops... granted it's not a lot of space for an individual but multiplied by every single residence and it's really a sad site when I look out the 2nd floor window! I am holding back on doing it though b/c I am worried about water damage and inadequate drainage... I don't think I could be frugal with taking on the endeavor of greening my garage rooftop without causing water damage and then creating an unsafe space :(

But I am growing strawberries out of shopping bags placed in 4x old $0.99 containers that once were filled with coconut fiber... way too much to hold enough soil, so I repainted them, lined each with 3x recycled shopping bags then put a thin layer of coconut fiber along the inside to prevent sticks from the soil causing damage to the bag (and adding a little more support) and voila! strawberries!

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the pics are small but you can see 3 of them attached to the lattice that borders my yard...

Here is a pic of a container that I picked up from a discount store and rather than using it how i think it was supposed to be used... which was to hold a long potting container, I lined the inside with a white garbage bag (to reflect the sunlight to keep the soil coil) and make it more pleasing to my eye... and then i lined the inside with a heavy duty plastic garbage bag, then a thin layer of coconut fiber taken from the little $0.99 pots that I reclaimed... filled it with soil and voila! strawberries!

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Lol the strawberries on the left look more thinned out then the right side b/c I had planted it from right to left and as I got to the center I started thinking I had planted the ones on the right too close together so I started spacing them farther apart... ohh and you can't really see it but behind every strawberry planter that I have is a borage plant... since they (from what I have read) companion plants...

Great idea for strawberries, did you make any drainage holes as they don't like to be too wet! If mine in ground get too wet they kick-off. You can just use a meter & be sure you don't get them too wet & they will probably be OK or just go underneath with sharp item & poke few holes! Your berries should be lot less bothered by snails,pill bugs & other critters. Hope you get a good crop!!Jan

What a good use of plastic bags. I like how the white shows off the design of your pretty planter. I guess in NYC you are fortunate to have any outdoor space, and you are making very good use of yours!
kathy

Here is the bottom of the large strawberry planter where I had used a soldering iron to make the holes in the many layers of garbage bags...

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In the newer containers that I make I line the holes with a piece of green abrasive scrubbing pad to keep the soil from running out with the water since I ran out of coconut fiber but I had some extra used scrubbing pads from the occasional sink washing.

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This is basically all I used to make the planters:
White garbage bag (outer layer)

scotch tape to hold the white bag to the iron planter since it is so light it moves all over the place until the black bag is in and then filled with soil

scissors

UV tie wraps

Heavy duty black garbage back

soldering iron to make holes for drainage and to run the tie wraps through

heavy duty electrical wire for mounting the planter to the railing on my deck

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closeup of the plastic shopping bag container

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Notice how the bag got deformed when I used a sharp object to puncture the hole in the 3x plastic bags...

Oh btw... I purchased one of those 75x (25x3) strawberry variety packs from starkbros.com So I wound up putting strawberry planters EVERYWHERE!!! I made sure to put the june bearing strawberries in the hard to reach places while the everybearing crops are within arms reach near ground level. Hopefully I won't have to climb up a ladder everyday even though I already do that since I can be quite obsessive about how the perennial vines are growing since they will be there for quite a long time.

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This planter is above the garage door in the pic below:

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Very creative ideas!! Thanks for sharing.

mikey...you took me to a whole new world with your rooftop living space (since I live on an acreage in Iowa)...TFS all the pics! What creative ideas you have for container plantings!!! The rice sack/nastr's is awesome! Loved lookin'! Jeanne S.

Thank you for showing us your garden.
kathy

Last few pics! This is the jewel of my little escape =P

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The varieties of moss were obtained by donations from neighbors who thought of their moss more as a nuisance and eye sore... And I occasionally stopped and grabbed a small piece from the random crack in the sidewalks while walking my dog... I saw it as something to cover my little waterfall and double as a place for biofiltration to take place as well as act as an anchor for the local flora to grow out of...

The fern roots, clovers were relocated from various parts of the backyard where they grew wild... and the other plants (basil, marigold, dill, nasturtium) were planted from seeds that were collected from the previous year.

The goldfish were bought from petland (50 for $4.00 ) About 37 of them survived and they now lay eggs so I can restock the occasional fish that jumps out and dies without having to take a trip to petland.

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it's approximately 100 gallons
the goldfish stay in there 365 days a year (in the winter I put a little heater to make sure a small hole is melted in the ice for air exchange
the glass blocks were put in so my nephew can see the fish and now it's mainly used for the fish to watch people! ;)

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Thanks for entertaining my tangent from "rice sack" containers Even though I tried to stay within the theme of posting pics made from random materials! Even the waterfall was made from free: slate, granite, excavated rocks, and broken marble obtained from all over from people who viewed them as more of something taking up space that they couldn't use!

Very creative ideas & what a cute courtyard you have made. Thanks so much for sharing!

Wow-I just love your rooftop garden! That must be a very soothing place to be. Also, I love the viewing gallery for the fish - they're keeping an eye on you! Colleen

love the rice sack idea. wonder if the cute reusable "green" shopping bags we use now would hold up for a season? i have some really cute ones. thanks for the ideas.

Luv your gardens! Your water garden is so cute & creative!!

LOve the glass block, how did you seal the whole thing? I'm using a liner, but wish I could concrete? or seal the rock somehow.

Oh, and great yard, and rooftop garden. Very nice, love the strawberry plants and the planters on the gate.

The fish pond is lovely. The glass block is a wonderful feature. Gotta show my dh he loves glass block. How do you keep the water clean enough for so many goldfish? (Another GJer mentioned once that they dirty the water more than most fish).
kathy

I enjoyed all your pics! They just got better and better. You have got it goin' on! I especially love the mossy pond and the glass tiles .... how clever! Great how you repurpose so many things, too, the strawberry wall, and the rice bag planters were fantastic. Please update as things evolve! ~tenderlee

Love your garden and the pond! Your yard is a good example for me because I live in the city and we sure don't have much in the way of a yard around here. I really like your "shelf" over the garage door. Is it made of lattice and pipe? And your pond is very cool with the block glass. I bet it is nice for the fish to be able to look out too.

calamity_j created a "fish tower" for her goldfish. She put a 1 gallon jar in the pond filled with water that the fish could go up into to look out. Was a very cool idea. Below is a link to the post but you will have to scroll down 10 messages to find a link to her picture of it that works.

Calamity, did you ever make a huge tower with the wine making jar?

Here is a link that might be useful: Fish & Chips & Coleslaw's Fish Tower

Thanks Luna for posting Calamity's fish & the cute chicken totems. My folks had gold fish that grew & they didn't have much trouble keeping it clean. They had couple of plants in the water & they didn't even have to feed the fish. Dad did clean it out about once a yr. They filled it with dirt a couple of yrs ago as realized it was getting to be too much. he gave the fish away to someone that had a pool. They were about 6-8 in. long! Jan

a pic of my cvs green bag- the petunias were 50 cents per pot at walmart. pic taken with cell phone so hope you can see it.
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Oh my so many messages in the past few days that I have not checked back! Thanks for all the kind words and I'll try to respond to the questions in order (since I can be quite the tangential typer)...

BUT First I'd like to clear up the misunderstanding that this is a roof top garden...

This "block" of homes in NYC happens to have a public driveway where kids play, inhabitants do a weird sort of k-turnish parking to put their cards into their private 1 car garages... and the sanitation department picks up our garbage!
Below is a photo stitched image taken from the 2nd floor bedroom in the "back" of the house:

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From the bottom of the pic to the top is:
1. home which you can not see that I am taking the pic from
2. MY backyard or "courtyard"
3. 1 car garage

------4. mirrored on the other side of the alleyway

3. neighbors 1 car garage
2. neighbors backyard or "courtyard"
1. Neighbors home which you CAN see b/c I am facing it :)
Ohh and the trees that are in the front of their homes so I don't confuse anyone and make them think the trees are growing off of the top of their homes!

I took a few pics to demonstrate the length of the "block" shared with about 60 homes total but the stitching became a little crazy looking due to all the extreme angles I had to take to show it all... I really wanted to show you all just to demonstrate how terrible and sterile cities can be... Even though the part of NYC that I live in is not full of sky scrapers (although I can see them from the park and my roof) it is indeed a concrete jungle with rooftops covered with asphalt and all sorts of tarred up with everyone's yard completely covered with concrete... My neighbor refers to my backyard as a little oasis on a good day, and a jungle when she is in a joking mood!

Now to the questions:

Caroleena: If your bag is made of a synthetic material, it will most likely last for more than 1 season... The reason it is recycled is probably b/c it would sit in a landfill for much longer than our lifespan... Unless it is made of paper and the company you had purchased it from is trying to prevent another tree from being cut down to make a paper bag. If it is indeed made of paper, it might not hold up for a few days ;)

There are synthetic materials that are coated for added UV protection since the sun's rays pack quite a wallop of energy even for some synthetic materials! I was actually looking for some larger sacks to use on the roof top of the garage... Something larger than just a little rice sack and I came across this sort of product.. You can buy various sized and types of bags from $10+ and they can be quite huge! I had the idea of planting some Highbush blueberries on the roof each getting it's own sack.. I think the large size would mean I wouldn't have to worry too much about watering them... Of course I am not sure since I'd need to take into consideration a good deal of variables such as the max weight of the full size bush + the max weight of all the soil in the bag when it is fully saturated during a heavy rainstorm. I'd also need to know the max loading of the huge beams under the roof... The porosity of the bag and if I'd have to make holes for drainage and how would that affect the stability of the bag are also some considerations... I could always just go small and try and make a small basic green roof but that isn't too much fun for me ;)

http://www.bagcorp.com/p_combobags.php

Anyways it's just an idea...

dulcimerduo:

The bottom of the pond is poured concrete with a slight slope towards the middle... If I could rebuild the pond I would change a bunch of stuff but for what it's worth, it is fine. The sides of the pond are cobble stone like blocks. They were picked up from (either Home Depot or some local place for contractors) I believe they are made of granite. I am not sure of how porous the rocks are but just to be safe, the entire inside of the pond is lined with a thin layer of Hydraulic Cement. I was a little bothered by having to cover the natural look of the stones inside the pond but in 1 year it winds up being covered entirely by a sort of string algae and having to scrub/remove the algea every year for the sake of seeing the stones imho defeats the calming environment that the pond provides!

The glass block is naturally waterproof so only the cement used in between the blocks and around them are coated with Hydraulic Cement. If you plan on doing a very large concrete raised pond you might enjoy the instructable that someone had made detailing their pond that they built out of concrete using rebar and wood as a form for the curving walls...

http://www.instructables.com/id/The_Ultimate_Koi_Pond/

You will need to make a username/password for the free website since they recently made some changes which require you to login in order to see the plethora of detailed pics that people include in each step of their process.

concretenprimroses:

Heh... goldfish... they really are such dirty fish but in return they are somewhat easier to take care of!

I had on numerous occasions read that they lack a normal digestive system like many other fish so they eat more frequently and will overeat if you overfeed them and in return provide you with lots of fast fish waste. I've also read that b/c of this lack of a stomach you have to feed them a winter diet to avoid food from sitting in their digestive system and rotting since they are cold blooded and their digestive system slows with the lower water temperatures.

Here is an article on the digestive system of carp (goldfish were domesticated from a type of carp).

http://www.pond-doctor.co.uk/longdigestion.html

Also, goldfish are carnivorous and even after over feeding my goldfish they will start plucking at the bottom looking for any food... This stirs up any solids that would otherwise settle to the bottom and clouds the water.

FYI: I had planned on using my goldfish as a means of creating an organic fertilizer for my outdoor annuals and perennials so I overfeed my fish and in return I use the water from the pond to water the plants. I then fill up the water in the pond with clean tap water which has usually been standing outside in a container for at least a full day so that the chlorine can evaporate out of it since it is treated Tap water. I try not to let the water sit outside for too long so that mosquitoes start laying eggs in it!

Once your goldfish (females) reach around 3 years of age they become sexually mature and start to spawn... The males will chase the females around all day long and bump into them... Since a large number of my fish are now over 3 years of age I find a few of them racing around the small pond which kicks up a lot of debris so the water is constantly cloudy!

Since my pond is so small it does require a bit of work to take care of with so many fish in it! I am trying to keep it as both an aquaponic setup and a means for making an organic fish poo tea fertilizer for the plants in the soil. The bio filter that I grew over the waterfall to convert ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate and the waterfall that helps evaporate the nitrogen into the atmosphere just doesn't cut it. I only have pumps in my pond since I don't have any room to put anything more than a pump so I have to make due with what I have for trying to keep the water clean. At first when the weather warms up, string algae and sheets of it will grow everywhere... even over the moss and leaves of any plants that the water happens to flow over... The string algae is a nitrate processing machine even though it is a bit gross to look at since it looks all slimy and dark! Even though it is gross it keeps the water clear unless the fish disturb the waste on the bottom when they forage looking for food. The string algae was recently scrubbed off to increase the aesthetic looks of the pond b/c I had guests coming over and in return the water is now a slight hue of green due to the increase of suspended algae that are consuming the nitrates that the string algae on the rocks once took care of. Feel free to ask more specific questions about what I did If I just confused you with this wall of text!

luna_llena_feliz:

The shelf connected to the garage is made of a bunch of
1. 1" diameter pvc pipes connected with "L" shaped connecters to form a base that adds support... It's like a giant rectangle that a slightly larger rectangular piece of lattice sits on top of!

2. Lattice overlaid onto the pvc base and secured with UV coated tie wraps

3. The pvc base + lattice are on top of multiple heavy duty hanging pot hangers that are anchored into the garage using concrete anchors. The garage walls are cinderblocks covered with stone and brick and painted over using a waterproof cement made by Drylock.

Again thanks for all the praise and kind words!

Mike

p.s. I think I now have to figure out how to support a large glass bowl or jar so I can do what calamity_J did!!!

here is a link to her pic

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL167/1640891/18561881/318338361.jpg

Oh... ONE LAST PIC!!! (for this response! mwahaha)

Here is what my yard looks like at night... I have rope LED lights all around the garden... The pic was taken with the shutter open for 2 seconds so some of the lights look intense but in actuality all the lights set a really somber and romantic mood with just enough light to be able to see eachother's faces and "drinks" on the table!

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At the moment the pond lights are currently hanging out of the pond. One of the lights had gotten condensation in it the plan is to eventually replace the halogen bulbs with LED bulbs... I just need to either find light fixtures prebuilt so that the LEDs use the same transformer or buy a new one :(

Ok it's been 3 weeks since I first took pics of the rice sacks with nasturtiums!

Here is an update:

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I am hoping climb a little bit higher before they start to flower... Other nasturtiums that I have in my yard have already started blooming.

Also...

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I am having a field day tying little pots to the trellis in order to root the runners that are shooting out of the strawberry plants! You can also see the big borage plants coming out of each strawberry planter... royalty raspberry plants are growing underneath the strawberries in the black pot and i also have parsley, tomato, mint, and cucumber growing in the plastic bin

Pond update:

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The plants are getting huge and doing a mighty fine job at filtering the water... The ferns also survived transplanting roots and placing those roots under pieces of sphagnum moss that is in constant contact with flowing water... The water has a bit of a greenish tinge to it but I can't see it since the pond itself is so dark... ::shrug:: I actually got a nasturtium to grow from a seed out of a bunch of pieces of pillow moss and "irish moss" that I placed on top of a piece of slate that water constantly drips onto... The nasturtium is on the bottom left of the pick hanging in front of the glass block

Ohh yes... one more thing I decided to make out of a washing machine drum that was removed when we got our washing machine fixed...

a compost tumbler!

It is not yet complete... I eventually want to connect it to a high ratio right angle worm gearbox and then connect that to a helix turbine =P

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WOW!!! Love it all!!! Especially your dreamy pond!!! Good job on Everything! Love the outdoor lighting too! I'm gearin' up to get a bigger pond in, have the hole dug 6wx10lx4d, and will be scrounging for the rock edging...I will have a partial raised pond...about a foot high as it was a big 6wx30long raised garden bed that I'm putting this pond in. I will be using a liner for it. It's right off a deck to my house, where I'll be using the rope lights like you are doing....I forgot about that carboy idea! sheesh! I'll dig it out for the pond...

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:146109}}

I am facinated...impressed...in awe!!!!!! You are certainly a wonder and one of the most creative people I have ever seen! I love every thing you did and your explanations of how you did it. I think you should write a how-to book on your garden! Look what all you have done with things others throw away. You really deserve some kind of award, but all I can give you is applause!

P.S. The title of your post is a little understated! Rice bags! You went well beyond rice bags! LOL

Thank you shysue! Maybe I should post pics of my floating pond pot(s) containing peace lilies that I made from:

1 quart chinese takeout soup container
old shower loofah
Styrofoam peanuts
hot glue
old(or new cheap) synthetic cotton from a fish tank filter

Actually, I would but the styrofoam peanuts don't offer enough buoyancy so as soon as I find something that does the job I will post it! If you look closely at the last pond pic you can see one of the floating pots that I recently removed to the right of the pond... (green and red looking)... As soon as the gold fish started thrashing around and spawning they would knock the floating pot over!