By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

You don't have to own land to enjoy plants, as Dustin Gimbel and Gary Putnam prove below.  The pad the two roommates share is just off Main Street in Seal Beach, California.  It's the town's oldest and most popular retail area.  Their place is tucked back between two-story retail buildings.  All you see from the front is a number and a gate.  Not exactly where you expect to find a garden.  I scratched my head, rechecked my address, and thought this can't be right.

As soon as you open the gate, though, there's evidence of garden -- plants spilling off walls, and pots lined up all along one side.  But it doesn't prepare you for the explosion of potted plants that greet you once you move into the central courtyard.  In fact, the only way you can really take in how much Gary and Dustin  packed into this little square is to show you what it looks like from the roof.   (That gray curtain that divides the space into foyer and living room, by the way, is Spanish moss draped over wire.)

Now for many people this would be enough.  But Gary wanted to grow tomatoes.  Not enough sun in the courtyard, not to mention room.  And Dustin, the owner of Second Nature Garden Design, needed more space to try out new plants.   Only one place to go -- the roof.  So they did.

And, to show just what dedicated gardeners these two are, here's how they access that roof.  You get used to climbing up that bouncy ladder, Dustin claims.  But it makes your heart thump a little the first time, that I know.  Kind of fun up there, though.

How about you?  Do you garden some place most people wouldn't think possible?  Tell us about it.  Even better, send photos.