My onboard garden.

The one thing that I used to miss,  living on a boat, is having a garden. At one time, I had a huge vegetable garden and access to all the fruit I could eat from an orchard we lived on. But on a boat there's not much space, and many plants don't take to the saltwater air.

So I started small. An aloe vera in a pot thinking that it was useful to have to use as skin lotion after being in the sun.

This one is the latest in a series of my attempts to grow them small enough to fit on the boat, yet big enough to be useful.

But I longed to have a herb garden with parsley and chives and basil and oregano. 

A friendly carpenter built me a box that fits conveniently at the back of the boat. And that's where I planted rosemary and thyme, parsley and oregano, chives and coriander, and even a small bay tree that a friend gave me.

Of course the mint had to go in a separate pot, otherwise it would take over the whole box. And  there's a cedar tree that I've been decorating for Christmas for the last two years - also a gift from a friend.

I tried growing tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, but I could never grow enough of them to make it worthwhile. I need a big garden for those.

For my birthday this year, friends gave me some flowering plants and so my garden keeps growing.

I now even have shade loving plants in the bathroom.

Now and then, a butterfly visits my floating home.

That's the Green Hairstreek  perched on the leftmost flower.