One problem with gardening on the roof is that the building might not be strong enough to hold up the weight of the soil, the pots, and the vegetables. No offense intended, but the quality of the buildings in the MidEast is often really bad because inspectors take bribes, contractors skimp on the materials, and the designs are often altered without asking engineers if it is safe. Only if you are sure you can do it without damage to the building. Concentrate on everbearing crops and fast ones or what you can grow that is expensive - tomatoes, peppers, brinjal, okra, and fresh herbs? Allow some space for growing fresh greens for your livestock. Get the plants going first, because that is part of your animal food. Have a plan for dealing with the animal waste or you will have flies and rats all over your building ... compost it, sell it to other gardeners, but it's Rabbits would work better than goats - easier to control, mature faster, and quieter, and less smelly. Chickens need really EXCELLENT sanitation and ventilation to survive indoors, but people in cold climates keep them cooped for 4-6 months a year. If you screened the windows, and cleaned daily it will work. One way to handle it is to have two pen areas ... lure them to one with food and keep them there while you clean the other one. Alternate like that.

I have a dwarf goat. She is a sweetheart BUT.....she doesnt like cats and will head butt them hard, she killed a sleeping kitten that way. Doesnt like small dogs either, same treatment. She does like the large dog and will hang with him as long as he will put up with her, if she gets too bouncy around him, he will give her an annoyed bark and walk away. She 'flocks' with the chickens and turkeys during the day. What i absolutely hate is that she will eat some of my plants (bananas) unless I spray them with a habanero pepper solution. Other plants, like my brugmansias she will 'fight' with. Basically if it's not edible she will break by rubbing her horns or body against it. She is a pet, so she gets the run of the 2 acre backyard, but breakfast time she is by the kitchen door waiting for a slice of bread. She is cooperative in the hoof trimming. I find they are absolutely smart, she observed the dog use the doggy door a couple of times and that night I woke up to a goat sleeping in the living room coffee table ( after snacking on ALL my house plants). I guess it would be a better situation if she has her own fenced area separated from MY plants and the smaller furries. I love it that she enjoys sitting with me outside so I can scratch her. she greets me when I come home from work and is a sweet pet. If I need some weeds trimmed, all I need to do is start shaking them around a bit, and she assumes I'm eating, so she starts eating it. That same behavior gets her in trouble with my garden plants, we are working on it, thou. Make sure you learn what is toxic in your area and either remove it or fence it from the goat. Enjoy

Here's my 2 cents on Aruncus. I have Misty Lace, Horatio, Dioicus and Zweiweltenkind. Trying to stay with the question asked(hard). Misty Lace to my eyes does not appear significantly different then Astibe. While a pretty plant with all the Astilbe I have it added nothing different. Horatio is to new to comment on. AD and AZ I love for their size and brought a new dimension to the garden. In a normal year my soil is moister retaining and astilbe and aruncus do well for me. I'm struggling to understand growing them in dry soil. I've had AD and Az for eons and mine never have looked heathy in droughty years. Don't know why? I have also been unfortunate as to lose a tree that gave the north side of my house most of it's shade. Everything now receives at least 5 hours of hot afternoon sun. AD and AZ are very unhappy and struggling. Even with additional water. In it's previous moist shady environment blooms stayed nice for easily 6 weeks or better. Foliage lush thick and green' Never actually recorded bloom time. Now blooms fry as soon as weather gets hot or the soil runs dry. Remember please I'm only speaking of my experience with aruncus and that said, I would only recommend it for moist shadier spots or sun with very damp soil for it to look its very best. O'kay I didn't stay with the question asked. Darn!

its 1:31 here, the boy is having company tonight, the only one we ever allow him to have over, LOL but i know talla has a crush on the boy and i think the feeling might be a little mutual, just a little. the boy is a little younger than tabor and a little older than talla. i told hubs, and we both agreed out of all the kids in this town he's the nicest one!! but i've been keeping my eye on them!! hey vic!! youve got that ol onery streak!! **big grinn*** that is sooo cool!! i missed that too!! when those seeds are harvested do ya want me to send ya some?? but you cant let little one eat any, well, in fact you cant either, and don't feed them to your hubs!! **onery grinn** that dark side is really bad!! the base of my "tree" is huge!! hubs said he was gonna chop it down ...i had to laugh at him really hard till i realizzed he was serious. then i told him, once it freezes they will die, so don't worry, i said i need those seeds baby!! and just kept chuckling!! he's just cute sometimes!! LOL tabor is helping me host the rr next month. now i have to go to the name that plant forum and see what some of my plants are!! i'm glad your pups are doing good!! wendy, i don't know if tabor emailed you, but he's waiting on the seeds of the bonarisis?? its drying out now, so i think he's about ready. he's upset with me now, because of our(my) goal, but the prize at the end for him is a youth bow that he's been wanting forever. he knows that. but he doesn't want to work so hard. LOL ~Medo