Floating Garden in British Columbia

Margy and Wayne Lutz have a floating cabin and garden on a lake in British Columbia, Canada. On their blog, Margy writes:

How Does Your Garden Grow? — With purple sage, red potatoes, and green lettuce all in a row. The heart of my garden is my float. It was designed and built by my good friend John. Cedar logs provide the buoyancy needed to keep four 3 X 10 raised beds above the waterline. On the bottom of the beds is a heavy cloth called mill felt. It is porous, but very strong. Frequent watering is needed in the warm summer months, so John installed a solar powered water pump and hose for me.”

https://powellriverbooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-does-your-garden-grow.html

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

3 Responses to Floating Garden in British Columbia

  1. Hello Lloyd – Thank you for sharing information about our float cabin and garden up here is Coastal BC. Once we discovered the cabin and it's unique lifestyle in 2001 we haven't wanted to leave since. It was quite a change for a Los Angeles couple with little off the grid experience. Thanks to our good friend John, it has been possible. Right now he is building a new cabin from the float logs up. It has been a great learning experience to work along with him. If any of your readers have questions they can come on over to my blog and leave a question. – Margy

  2. Hi, Great stuff! Reminds me of the huge fleets of Chinese ships & Incan rafts & reed ships that carried gardens on board while exploring. Just reread some of "Collapse" today – about the Aztec chanampas & the Lapita people arriving at New Guinea via rafts, etc., about 46,000 years ago, probaly with planters & plants. Enjoy your fine old tradition!

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