Oceanic Gardens

Basically, this idea provides a means of making good use of old, decommisioned maritime vessels, like old passenger liners and outdated warships.

Simply put, the ships' entire upper decks would be covered in tropical plantlife. Flowers, vegetables, fruit trees, etc... The outer hull covered in fast-growing hanging vines. As much of the middle and lower decks would be filled with soil as bouyancy (sp?) would allow. There would be hundreds, possibly thousands, of old, mothballed ships that would otherwise be left to rust and sink, and eventually demolished, that could be given the Garden Mod.

Each ship would be refueled exactly once, then set to drift freely on the oceans. Windmills on the ships would store enough energy for minor course corrections to keep the Gardenships from running aground. This would be handled by automated contol systems linked to a GPS. Each ship's progress would be monitored by GPS, and if the ship got dangerously close to land or icebergs or reefs (the locations of which are marked on nautical charts) the ship's automated control systems would activate the engines and steer a course away from (or parallel to, if there's a town within viewing range) the shore.

These magnificent, autonomous floating bastions of wildlife would provide much joy for sailors, cruise passengers, and inhabitants of coastal towns, as well as beginning a new sport - Garden Spotting.

Volunteers could fly helicopters out periodically to the Gardenships to fertilize the soil, if needed. Who knows, maybe some new form of intelligent life will evolve on these ships.

Note (not part of the main idea, so please don't bone it based on this not being feasible): People might even be able to live on these ships, if they were inspected and deemed safe enough. They'd be self-sufficient, with power provided from all the wind on the ocean, food from the garden itself. Fresh water could be provided by an onboard desalinator (sp?). Nice place for the homeless to go. What do you think?