The Beginning!

Hello!

My fiance Audrey and I moved in to our apartment back in September 2010.  We live a cozy (meaning small) apartment in beautiful Park Slope.  We are in love with the neighborhood, and are even getting used to the close quarters.  However, we feel the need to have some space that we can stretch out, cultivate, show off to our friends, and call our own. 
         Our rooftop has a beautiful manhattan view, and we have already shared some of our most memorable experiences in our few trips up there.  There are two in particular, one happening on New Year's Eve...  we had a couple of friends over to watch the fireworks on the roof, because I had heard that they were shooting some off near Grand Army Plaza (about five blocks from our house).  We brought our instruments and a bottle of wine on the roof; our friend Evan playing the guitar, his girlfriend the accordian, and myself the trombone.  We did not anticipate at all that we would have a good sized audience of half sober people atop the other rooves.  We played, and counted down to the new year,  and then fireworks shot up in either direction (to our surprise).  Some were right in front of us, and others were illuminating Lady Liberty across the river.  We played Auld Lang Syne in trio, appearing very bohemian to the applauding audience. 
The second and most memorable experience was in November, when I proposed to Audrey at sunset.
         Audrey was the one who had the wonderful idea to take this roof and make it our own; a guerrilla gardening of sorts.  Immediately my mind went racing.  Two rules to start off with: 1) We've gotta make sure everything is secured down. 2) Everything we get up there has to fit through the 2' x 3' ladder opening.                    
        Our budget?  As close to zero as possible.  This will be DIY, pick off the street, use unusual things as planters, and it will be a whole lot of fun.  Let me take a moment to mention that we are NOT experienced gardeners, although it does run in the family.  We will make mistakes, but we will persevere!  This being said, our budget will mainly go to soil, the physical plants or seeds (we're not sure which route we're going with this, probably both) and whatever tools we deem necessary.
         So today, March 21st, was a garbage picking day.  This is an all too simple profession in Park Slope.  I went out searching in the afternoon and within thirty minutes I had found a small bookcase (laid on its back will become a planter) and a wooden case which used to hold wine, and more recently held charcoal briquets and ash.  I plan on spray painting the bookcase yellow.  Add those finds to an aquarium we picked yesterday (I hope we can see the roots when they grow in!), and we have enough to start a little bit of planting.  I went to True Value with my granny cart and picked up two big bags of potting soil, putting us back $21.75.  In this way I'm going to keep a log of how much we spend over the entire process.  I'm also going to try to up a couple of pictures of the finds and the roof!

So to recap...

Assets allocated today: 

• bookcase planter
• wooden wine case
• 2x bags of soil

Things accomplished:

• Basically just got all the stuff on the roof (the bookcase barely fit)
• Started a blog about it!

Amount Spent today:

• $21.75

Total amount spent so far

• $21.75   :  )