A floating world
AS INNOVATIVE GARDENS GO, THIS WATER- BORNE HOME AND VEG PATCH TAKES SOME BEATING. IN WESTERN CANADA, FREEDOM COVE IS A WORLD FILLED WITH GREENHOUSES, PRODUCE AND ART
Catherine King and Wayne Adams met in 1987 and immediately felt a connection through a shared love of nature and art. When they came across a pile of storm-strewn lumber in Cypress Bay, on Vancouver Island, they saw an opportunity to turn it into a home. Today, Freedom Cove has a lighthouse, four greenhouses, a dance platform, smokehouse and a candle-making workshop.
The story so far
Before we arrived, there wasn’t anything here except water, shoreline, trees, rocks, seaweed, herbs, wildflowers, salal (a shrub native to North America) and huckleberries. It did have (and still does) many starfish and other sea life including crab, clams, sea cucumber and water birds, including merganzer ducks, heron, gulls and kingfisher.
We built our floating platform on a beach outside the cove and, once it was habitable, moved it into the cove. Because having a place to dance was important to me, we built my dancefloor next, and then the garden. I started simply, growing salad greens, then each year I added more edible plants, herbs and flowers, fruit trees, berries and finally planted some decorative bushes and trees. As my garden grew, our whole system expanded to accommodate it. The platform is built on recycled fish farm systems, and plants are grown in recycled containers. Although we live on an island, it doesn’t feel confined: the dancefloor gives me space to move, so I never feel hemmed in, and neither do our two chihuahuas.
Simple pleasures
Floating allows us to be a part of nature without interfering with it. We can watch bears or wolves on the shore, and not interrupt them as they go about their day. The crows, seagulls, bufflehead and merganser ducks and other water birds, have made us part of their family. The platform also provides protection for the fish that come to spawn beneath our floating systems.
How the garden grows
I grow everything from seed (except the shrubs and fruit trees) in my four greenhouses. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are grown in the larger one, after getting started in propagators in the house. I grow peas, fava beans, carrots, and everything else in the other greenhouses. Everything gets started under glass then they are brought out when they are large and strong enough for the conditions outside. In winter, I grow winter salad greens, over-wintering broccoli, and plants and herbs that need extra protection in the greenhouses. Many plants stay outside though, including over-wintering cabbage, kale and collard greens. We eat fresh vegetables all year round. I have three composters that are on wooden pegs and frames that allow them to turn, as well as a worm farm.
“Floating allows us to be a part of nature without interfering with it. Living here also inspires us creatively”
When it goes wrong
We are tied to the shore with big ropes that look like a spider web. This stabilises everything and allows the platform to move easily when we are hit by heavy winds. On the best days we hardly move at all. We don’t have large waves to deal with, fortunately, as we are protected by the cove. We do have to tackle storm damage, however: strong winds find their way in and whirl around us. Our dancefloor area has had to be rebuilt four times due to storms, for example. Maintenance and repair are a constant as a result. When we are in our house in a storm we feel like beavers in a den. We will have to build a new house very soon, too, so that will be the next large project. This winter, Wayne transformed the generator and tool shed into his man cave. He built it to look like a cuckoo clock!
An artistic life
Living in Freedom Cove inspires us creatively. We are wildlife artists and the environment we live in is reflected in our work. The whole place is one large art installation and is constantly evolving, due to storms and creative change. Buildings rot and need to be taken down and rebuilt from recycled materials. We keep what is good from the old and add it into the new.