Taking control of our space and feeling better for it

Lurching from wishing each other a better New Year in 2021 to immediately plunging into Lockdown 3 has been depressing. Liveaboard boaters have been advised to travel minimally, moving only to services like water, waste disposal or shopping. We’ve decided to act in a way we feel is supporting the wider community, but it doesn’t stop me feeling immensely frustrated watching boats moving past. Or having boaters call out questioning why we are staying put when we have a boat and a canal and the capacity to move. It’s a reflection of what’s happening in every community – most are sticking to the rules but a minority refuse to, making life harder and potentially more dangerous for all.

It is hard at such times to think positively . It also feels as if we have little that we can control (perhaps that’s why the rule breakers act as they do – they see it as taking back control). Being so close to nature living on the water has helped, as have daily walks with the dog. As he pauses to sniff at all the exciting smells around him, I have time to really look around. In the last week I have become aware of the new growth and new life beginning all around us. Whatever is going on with the pandemic and the virus, politics or inoculation, life is sprouting, often unnoticed. Nature is continuing its cycle just as it has through previous pandemics, wars and crises. That is not only positive but comforting.

Whilst I love having the wildness and constant changes of nature around me, this year I do want to have my own garden on the boat too, to add to the greenery around us. So just as gardeners across the country have begun to plan at this time of year, I have begun planning this year’s challenge – a garden on a 50ft steel box. Our downshifting lifestyle should enable more time for gardening and growing our own. This planning and preparation is also a way I can exercise control over an area of my life that the current restrictions cannot curb.

We do have a few plants already, inside and on top of the boat – the heathers still bring a welcome splash of colour to the roof.

In the cratch we are trying to grow mushrooms (a welcome Christmas present) but we’re not sure whether they have been frozen in recent days… hope springs eternal though so maybe as things warm up they will sprout!

An amaryllis that was fabulous last year when we lived in a house is beginning to sprout onboard having been left outside until a couple of weeks ago but I have no idea where to put it when it does flower – it was enormous last year! We will have to put it on the dining table because that’s the only place with the right height which could mean we need to use small plates for meals whilst we enjoy its blooms!

Planning and selecting outside plants is exciting. Advance thought is vital this year because I need to source containers, seeds, plants, leaf mould and soil etc. I am once again upcycling and recycling tin cans, egg boxes and yoghurt pots,as planters/potato chitting/seed beds respectively.

Vegetables that bring an element of self sufficiency combined with splashes of colour (ideally from edible flowers) are my main aims for this year. This does though need to be balanced – quite literally! I’ve never considered the weight balance of my garden before but the weight of containers, irrigated soil and plants needs to be considered to keep the boat level in the water.

Other considerations are wind and height. Everything on the roof will be subject to wind damage being unprotected in the main (although I have seen old net curtains used as wind breaks). We can’t have anything higher than about 18 inches to avoid interfering with the skipper’s view or being knocked off the boat by low bridges or high winds! Is that 18 inches including growth? Will plants cope with brushing against bridges? Ah well, we will find out!

Aspect is another consideration – the roof garden will never be pointing in a particular direction all the time, and being a metal roof there’s a danger of roasting roots in summer. Additionally in the summer we tend to moor for shade to cool the boat down…

Two Christmas presents look like being immensely valuable in helping grow essentials easily this year – a potato bag and a strawberry/herb bag.

Having had great success with potato bags on land I just need to find a suitable location. I am in negotiations with the Skipper about putting it on the foredeck (sounds grand but it’s the teeny weeny bit of deck at the very front of the boat). It will have to share the space with ropes that are used almost daily and not interfere with the water tank filler. It also gets the brunt of the wind as we cruise along.

I think salad potatoes will be fine if I can make sure they have air underneath, between the bag and the deck and can secure the bag so it won’t fall off if I catch it with ropes or the hose. I have an old egg box ready to chit seed potatoes next month and am looking at growing a proven familiar variety like Charlotte.

Above the potatoes I’d like to attach a half hanging basket as a fixed container for tumbling cherry tomatoes -something like Red Profusion perhaps.

I have seen some amazing floating gardens. The area with most tall plants on the lower levels is the very area where we sit out and on a small boat like ours we (and visitors when we can welcome them aboard) need and enjoy that essential space!

My plans need to be a bit more modest for year one. Bucket planters on the top would be fine with Steve at the tiller but the way I steer the boat they wouldn’t stand a chance!

I am looking to build two small planters for the roof out of current supermarket plastic bread trays. At the moment they contain coal sacks and wood but by the time I need two of them we should be into warmer weather! If I set them centrally they should centre the weight and not cause any problems of the boat tipping. It may be that for this first year I can use growbags inside them which may help me get things started.

Wherever I position the garden it needs to be out of the way of the centreline rope/s which are fixed on a midpoint on the roof. They are in continuous use when cruising for holding the boat for mooring, in locks etc. This means anything on the boat needs to be ahead or behind these whether on the roof or the sides! I am thinking where we currently have coal /wood will work because I haven’t yet knocked that off with ropes, bridges or winds! I will need mats for air/drainage underneath as I need to protect the roof but I have mats and fake grass offcuts under most of the current stuff on the roof.

I thought of piercing tin cans, painting them up in bright colours, and hanging them somehow from the grab rail to give me plants at the sides of the boat, again in places where I hope not to demolish them with ropes!

So garden buffs out there – what do you think of the overall plan for thrillers, spillers and fillers! Mainly edible but with as much added color as possible.

Thrillers – tumbling cherry tomatoes at the front of the boat in a half basket, fragrant rosemary with its blue flowers in a corner of a bread basket and bright, fun snapdragons perhaps hanging in tins?

Spillers – cascading strawberries in my brilliant gifted container on the roof together with bright yellow marigolds for colour and to keep the bugs away, and more colour in nasturtiums, thyme and maybe sweet peas tumbling from tins?

Fillers – parsley, stumpy carrots, sugar snap peas and low beans, accompanied by cutting lettuce leaves and radishes, spinach and basil in bread baskets, and scented geraniums in tins. I love rainbow chard but Steve won’t eat it so there isn’t much point in growing it just for me. Potatoes too come in this section.

We use a lot of onions and garlic but it seems to me they’ll take up too much of our already limited space. Am I wrong?

A welcome gift of of wildflower seeds will be scattered among the bread basket beds so we can enjoy them this year. If I harvest their seeds to scatter along our route others can enjoy them too in future years.

Gardeners out there – what have I missed that might work, and what have I put in that will struggle? DIY enthusiasts – any ideas of how to suspend the tin can planters so they look good and stay safe?

Taking control of our environment at a time when never-ending restrictions seem to alter how we live is important and liberating. Looking at the list of things I need to take into account it’ll be interesting to see if I can actually grow anything! We can but wait and see – it’ll be fun trying!