Growing Watermelons on the Shed Roof 2

We’re trying to make the most of available outdoor space by growing watermelons on the garage roof

Our first sugarbaby watermelon is set and is the size of a fist.

We live in a rented house in Hawthorn East. It has a reasonable sized yard, but I don’t like to waste precious growing space on vining plants such as pumpkins and watermelons. I usually grow these sorts of things on the family farm. However, we have a single car garage at the back of the property. The roof of the garage, receives full sun and was all too tempting for me to trial growing some watermelons on it this summer. I planted a few seeds of the variety “sugarbaby’ in a polystyrene box. This is a fairly compact watermelon, which produces small fruit, ideal for fitting in the vegetable crisper drawer of your refrigerator. I have installed a small length of soaker hose in the box so that I can simply attach the garden hose and water it from ground level.

Over the Christmas period, the first fruit set on the vine and is now the size of a fist.

WARNING: If you’d like to have a go at doing something similar I strongly urge you to check the structural integrity of the shed roof (or better still get a builder or engineer to check it for you). I have used a polystyrene box to reduce weight (as well as insulate the soil) and have placed it on the edge of the roof, where the brick wall supports the weight. I wouldn’t recommend placing a planter box in the centre of the roof.