Faces & Figures, a weekly feature of seattlepi.com’s Big Blog, aims to explore the culture of Seattle through photos accompanied with a thought, musing or quote from the people we encounter in our city. If you know an interesting person we should feature, let us know.

Mike Naiman grew up in the desert Southwest. So when he moved to Seattle decades ago he was immediately attracted to the water. Naiman now lives on the water, in a 38-foot mahogany boat he has been restoring. He found the boat advertised online after the previous owner abandoned the restoration project.

Living on Lake Union can be a wonderful, relaxing, and very Seattle way to exist in an urban setting. But for Naiman, who enjoys gardening, he missed being able to tend to his vegetable garden.

“One thing (maybe the only thing) I miss about living on land is gardening,” he posted recently on his Facebook Page.

Well he seems to have solved that problem by creating a floating garden. The tomatoes, bok choy, cucumbers, strawberries and other veggies were planted in an old fiberglass dinghy. Naiman created a space under the soil with wood and landscape fabric where he installed a small sump pump so the garden would not become flooded. It also has a floatation chamber in the bow and stern to help stay afloat even if it filled with water. It now bobs up and down in his protected marina.

The next step: Figuring out how to keep the geese away from the garden. Any suggestions are welcome.

Editor’s note: The author is a friend of Naiman’s and actually assisted him as he built the floating garden.

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