Safety First

Today I'd hoped to get a lot more done, but real life got in my way.

Nonetheless, I hauled a ton of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite up to the roof, along with some gardening tools, agriculture-grade charcoal, and a huge food-safe vinegar barrel (BPA-free!), which I'll be using to create a gravity fed drip-irrigation sytem. The fact is, these plants will all die if they're dependent on me going up to the roof every day of the summer. So I'm trying to create an irrigation solution (or "MacGyver" one, as J would say) that I can check once or twice a week.

I also wrapped some aircraft cable around a couple of chimneys and threaded it through screw eyes on the ends of the planters to serve as a safety line. I don't expect any winds to blow these things off the roof—particularly when they have soil weighing them down—but I'm not taking any chances.

Aircraft cable safety line. 

I stapled some .2ml plastic to the bottom of the corn planter to keep moisture from soaking the plywood and help delay the rotting process. 

The "rain barrel" is temporarily lashed to a chimney.