Living remotely and off grid brings with it numerous challenges that one needs to overcome. Doing so sometimes requires simply adapting to the new circumstances until you are in a better position to overcome but no matter which way you go, relying on yourself and your own skills is a cornerstone to being self-reliant and more self-sufficient than the average person. One of the largest challenges at Freedom Point: Gardening.
This week, we bring you more of the Story of Freedom Point which is owned by Ed and Linda P and is not only remotely located in Southeast Alaska, it is completely off the grid and road system. Mister Dreamer and I hope to make it out to visit them this month. Be on the look out for my interview with them and pictures from our visit!
FREEDOM POINT GREEN HOUSE, by Ed P.
When living in the bush away from the road system, the idea of growing some of our produce merits pretty high on our scale of priorities. Our area has a pretty short and cool growing season and also the soil here consists mostly of wet, saturated muskeg. It seems to grow trees, blueberries, and skunk cabbage quite well but it just will not work well for the typical outdoor garden. So, we opted to build a small green house and use soil purchased commercially and bagged for transport.
We have had some success with herbs, leaf lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini squash, and cucumbers. We are learning by trial and error the varieties that produce and those that just take up space. For instance, the small cherry type tomatoes are the best for us due to the short growing season.
We start the plants by seed in the house in late March and transplant to the green house in late April with harvest beginning in July. We use grow tubs on shelves to make best use of the space and the smaller varieties like lettuce and herbs can sit in pots on the upper shelving. Zucchini squash and tomatoes take more room and are planted in larger pots on middle shelves and the larger grow tubs at the end. The green house has a center walk area and three sides of growing room, plus a few hanging pots high up in the ceiling area. We plumbed it with water and a small 12 volt pump to pull from our house water tank. The floor is spaced 2X6’s, allowing drainage directly out through the cracks.
We’ve had the green house for several years now and continue to make changes based on our learning curve. This year we have plants already sprouted and are just waiting for a little warmer weather outside to start filling the grow tubs and pots. Hopefully, in the next few weeks for sure. Here’s a peek at the construction which began by creating a deck. The location was chosen to acquire as much sunlight as possible during the summer months and just happened to be on a 12 foot cliff. So support posts were dug into the muskeg, braced, with beams across to hold the 2X6 floor. The deck is large enough to allow for a walk area completely around the outside for maintenance of the building.
The building is only 8 feet wide and 9 feet long with a door on the front and a window-vent on the opposite end. It is built with 2X4’s which are connected with special metal framing clips available at any lumber supply and the panels are a double plastic made for green house use. The double construction allows an air space between the outside and the inside, creating some insulating protection as well as added strength to each panel. We do not have any source of heat inside other than the solar generated through the panels.
The plants seem to like the environment….One year, in our eagerness to grow tomatoes, the plants were the vine type and simply took over most of the back half of the space…it was like a jungle….another learned lesson. More plants is not always the best use of the area. We continue to try and we continue to learn. The green house garden needs lots of ventilation, plenty of water on hot days, and good drainage.
We have resorted to pollinizing with a small paintbrush to compensate for the lack of bees and insects inside the building, but that seems to work. It also works on one’s patience. Linda and I are builders and boaters…gardeners we don’t claim to be…but we carry on and enjoy the bounty from the Freedom Point Green House.
Articles about Freedom Point are written by Ed and Linda P and edited for content clarity only. All pictures are the property of Ed P and used with his permission. You can read more about the Story of Freedom Point by going here.