Roof Deck Gardens & Aviary

Botanical Garden Cacti – 8

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Botanical Garden Cacti – 8 Echinopsis subdenudata. Blooms continuously and with each passing year it has increased the number of flowers. This specimen was about 8-9 years old in this photo – showing 7 blooms. They open when it is still dark so the evolved pollinators may be night fliers. On the roof deck garden large black with yellow fur carpenter bees and early foragers from my honey bee hive feast on the nectar and pollen. I find that bees do learn to identify food source plants other than those their genetic wiring has programmed them for. Carpenter bees are fast learners, with honeybees now catching up.

Introduction for Roof Deck Gardens & Aviary

Welcome to the ever changing and endlessly fascinating world of Dar Balmira’s roof deck! These photos give you a sense of how this small rectangular space, one of thousands of interconnected roof decks inside the Medina, has become a unique oasis of nature. Some of the animals live year round on the roof deck while others, mostly winged creatures such as butterflies, bees, and other insects somehow find our flowering bit of paradise and arrive in ever greater variety and numbers year after year to feed on the nectar, pollen, and leaves of the plants we cultivate. The closest natural areas are at least a kilometer away from Dar Balmira; but even they are mostly cultivated fields with human habitations that have sheep and other farm animals.  As you will read below some butterflies are now actually breeding on the roof deck since I started cultivating the right plant food sources for their caterpillars.