The Garden

Monday, June 13, 2011

It's a good problem to have, I suppose. In fact, it's one of the best kinds of problems: trying to keep up. That's what I'm doing now with this jungle garden of mine. I guess I keep my expectations low to avoid the suffering of disappointment. That's the only reason I should be surprised that our garden is blowing up in its tropical jungle where the soil is reasonably rich, the sun shines bright, and when it doesn't, rain infuses new life into everything it touches. Everything is alive out here. Even the seemingly dead underbrush shutters with the bustling of its tiny inhabitants.

Upon planting this garden, I tried to keep an open mind, but prepared to make war with pests and diseases similar to that which I had battled in Paia. Not to say that I won't have to deal with unpleasant forces in the garden at some point. That is inevitable. Yet, here I am today, struggling to keep up with the sudden, rapid growth of plants in the garden and around the yard. Like I said, it's a good problem to have.

Some things, like the sunflowers and the cucumbers, are finding it difficult to get a growth spurt going after being in smaller pots too long before transfer to the plot. Everything else, though, is growing so tremendously fast and beautifully. All we're harvesting at the moment is a plethora of greens and radishes. The bounty with just these crops, though, has me wondering what the heck I'm going to do with everything else if they're even half as successful.

Then we have the fruit trees. Now, I can't possibly fathom how a single tree manages to derive enough energy from the soil and sky to produce the staggering mountains of fruit under which we've become buried. Specifically, I'm referring to this one guava tree. If I could actually harvest all the fruit of this tree, without making it my full-time job, I would need another hired hand to find something useful to do with all of them. Never fear, though, my dear. The rodents are here! We're apparently sharing the tree with several large rats who like to run around gorging themselves on the tasty fruit, throwing the remnants to the ground below, then fighting and screeching presumably over who gets the best perch in the tree. It's all quite dramatic, except for the drudgery of raking up the carpet of guava carcasses left over in the morning.

 

So I found a window of time in which I could go out and harvest a heaping 5 gallon bucketful of guavas. I had decided to juice them. I must say that, despite the epic mess I made of the juicer, this turned out to be a very good idea. The juice wasn't so much juice, as it was a puree of sorts. There was no chugging this guava juice. I had to eat it with a spoon! Seeing as I had copious amounts of this wonder concentrate, I diluted what we'd use in the next few days with water or another juice, and froze the rest in those plastic yogurt containers. I don't have much time for cooking these days, but if I did, I imagine I could cook up something fantastically tart and sweet with the thick puree of guavas. I'd love some ideas! Of course, the rapidity with which we're consuming this stuff leads me to believe that it'll all be gone before I get a chance to sit down in the kitchen with a recipe. As you can see, I couldn't even wait to take this photo before I downed half the bottle!

 

On the other end of the spectrum, we have a young mountain apple tree that produced the most deliciously crispy, tart fruits. The only down-side here was that the tree produced about a dozen apples total, due to its youth. The tree is a little choked out by other plants around it, so I'm planning on pruning around this tree to encourage greater growth for next season.

Last, but not least, I've shared a video with you below demonstrating the "thinning" of a row of plants that have been direct-sown into the garden. After watching the video, check out the quick and easy side dish I made with the thinnings. Until next time, happy gardening!

A Summery Side of Radish

So, here's what I did with all those baby radishes:

2-3 tops of fresh garlic chives, chopped (approx. 3-4 tbsp)

2 6" sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves chopped (approx. 2-3 tbsp)

As many baby radishes as you can find, roots & leaves, chopped small (I had approx. 6 cups)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp balsalmic vinegar

Lime, salt, and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a pan over low heat. Add the radishes and balsalmic vinegar. Simmer lightly for only a few minutes, until the radishes and greens are tender. Add chives and thyme. Simmer for a few moments more. Then remove from heat. Sprinkle with lime, salt, and pepper to taste. The version of this recipe that inspired this advised that the dish should be served chilled, which I did like. However, I initially had it as a warm side dish with very simple pasta, and really relished it this way. Experiment and enjoy!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Sunday, April 24th 2011

 _____Friday, March 18th, 2011_____
 Welcome to Our New Garden!

Well, it's not much of a garden just yet. We have a lot of work to do! The space is quite large, and we'll be splitting it with our new neighbors. In the center, there are 4 raised beds with several well-established plants (rosemary, thyme, kale, lettuces, basil, cilantro, chives),  for which we'll share care (and eating!) responsibilities with the neighbors. I'm so excited to get started!

But don't think I've forgotten to provide a journal of the garden move from Paia to Haiku! So, here goes:

Our old Paia garden gave us a couple of very sweet parting gifts, like most of the strawberry papayas ripening before we left & a ton of bananas, for which we are eternally grateful. But it also gave us one huge tease: this bromeliad that we found hidden under brush, rescued, and replanted turned out to be a pineapple! We know it's a pineapple because it started to flower the week before we moved. Don't get me wrong, I'm so stoked it's finally healthy and happy. But did it have to flower right before we left, leaving us with the tease of that delicious pineapple we worked for but will never taste?! Oh, well. I hope the new tenants appreciate it for all its glorious deliciousness. ;-)

I also just had to share this other parting gift from Paia: the Walking Iris bloomed, and I actually caught it on camera! See, when this guy blooms, the flower lasts for less than a day. So very often I'd notice that it had a flower bud, only to notice a couple of days later that I somehow missed its bloom! Argh! This is why I was so very excited to catch this blossom only a few days before our move. I was able to successfully take clones from this guy, so hopefully we'll have more of this to come at our new house!

So the big day finally came to move all the plants I was able to take with us. In the weeks preceding the move, I cut, cloned, dug up, and potted samples of everything I wanted to, and feasibly could, transplant. Then, on moving day, I took several wheelbarrow loads to the truck, completely filling it with plants. Everybody made it to the new house safe and sound, despite the bumpy roads and sudden inclement weather along the way. I was actually quite thankful for the rain on garden moving day, because I think it made the move much easier on the plants. I didn't notice any signs of shock in the plants, rather they seemed to perk up right away in their new cooler & wetter home!

So here we are today. After a couple of weeks spent scouting out pots, planters, & supplies, I finally bit the bullet to purchase hanging baskets, large wooden planters, and potting soil to fill them. Since the main garden area is no longer just outside my backdoor, (it's just around a stand of trees out the backdoor) I decided it'd be a good idea to keep my cooking herbs in planters close to the door. I know enough to know that if something isn't right outside the door when I'm cooking or it's dark outside, I'm probably not going to venture out to get it, no matter how much my meal would benefit from it! Plus, I thought our lanai and yard would be fantastically enhanced if speckled with our transplanted plants. 

I brought this pretty lady with us, though I still have no idea what she's called. She's been really fussy in a pot, demanding lots of water while alternating between death throes and pure brilliance. Yet, I've see these plants in the ground a couple of times, and they seem to thrive outside the confines of the pot. So I thought she'd look great on this relatively bare corner that's right next to the water hose. This way she gets space and some extra water. Now, if I could only just figure out what she is... 

I re-used those annoying plastic apple cartons as clone trays for my elephant bush and goldfish plant cuttings. I was actually quite proud of myself for finding a use for those otherwise extraneous pieces of plastic. They've served admirably in their new role, keeping me from having to buy new (also plastic) seed trays. They're not the prettiest thing I could have on my lanai, but frugality and environmental friendliness far outweigh the aesthetic factor. 

It's time to move these clones up to larger pots, as it seems that most of them have taken root. I'd like to plant these around a couple of bare edges of the house, to fill in landscape holes. In case you're wondering, cloning plants from cuttings is easy & amazing: cut a small branch just below a node, which looks like a joint, & is where new leaves sprout, on the stem. Some use rooting solution to encourage root growth, but I have success just planting the stem in damp soil or a cup of water. Rooting takes anywhere from a few days to weeks, depending on the plant. I know these guys have rooted by the new growth they're exhibiting. Not all plants clone well from cuttings, but it never hurts to try!

I'm reserving the big planters for my herbs. At the moment, I have 3 big planters, but I think I need at least 2 more. It's costly upfront, but well worth the investment to have my herbs handy and still provide them with enough soil space to flourish. I dug up my garlic chives & put them in a large planter by themselves for the moment. This planter has Italian basil, oregano, and a few rainbow chard plants I was able to rescue from the slugs at our old house. I did some reading on companion planting and found that basil is helpful to oregano, for example. While I don't have many herbs to mix and match at the moment, I'll keep companion planting concepts in mind going forward, as I acquire more herbs for the planters. It only seems logical to find who's friends with who before I force plants into confined spaces with each other!

This planter has the Thai basil, surrounded by spearmint and lavender. I'm trying to cultivate as much lavender as possible, seeing as how I keep reading about what a great mosquito repellent it is. I actually got this lavender to start from seed. It's been pretty slow-growing, but I'm hoping this new environment will be much more conducive to its health. The third planter has mint and lavender, and is awaiting its principle herb. I'm thinking I'll put sage there. I had abandoned growing many herbs in Paia, because they just couldn't make it there under the heat. Now that we're in a slightly cooler and wetter area, I've got lots of herb cultivation to do!

Here are a couple of pineapples we've been growing in pots. After seeing how well the pineapple did at the old house, I know we've got to get these in the ground so they can flourish. I'm just not sure where to put them yet. I've also got several coleuses in pots with which I'd like to fill landscape holes. It's just a matter of deciding which ones to put where...

I'll keep several ornamentals around the lanai, as well. Here, we see some of my sempervivum succulents, a Boston fern, and a lovely Aka'aka'awa begonia, whose flowers are edible citrusy delights. I've got several other pots full of succulents, and other ornamentals to keep our lanai matching the yard: full of color and life!

I procured several hanging baskets, because I've always wanted plants in hanging baskets and have never really had a proper set! Here we see Crystal Palace lobelia in the background and catnip in the foreground. I also hung a nasturtium, spider plant, and a shade-loving vine that I have yet to properly identify. I imagine I'll also be adding to the hanging basket population in the future. ;-)

Being quite "jungled in" as we are, direct sunlight is a non-entity inside the house & bright light is fleeting. So I'm nervous about bringing my orchids in the house, thinking they might not get enough light. I'm waiting on some furniture to arrive that will provide a couple of more promising spots for my house orchids. I've also got one in the house already, as a "light scout" of sorts. I'm watching her closely to see if she acclimates to the light levels in the house. Until then, I've got a great spot on the lanai that certainly has appropriate conditions for the orchids. So they're camping there for now.

If I have to keep the orchids outside, I know they'll be fine, judging by the abundance of existing orchid growth in the yard. This is just one example, and I'm showing you her photo because she actually started sending out a flower stalk the week we moved in! I can't wait to see what her flowers look like. 

So, we've gone from the sweet parting gifts of our old garden to the precious housewarming gifts of the new garden. How blessed we feel to be taking part in this land! I'm so grateful for what has been, what is, and what is yet to come!

Speaking of what is to come... what is to come? Well, now the fun begins! In my garden shopping, I also picked up some new seed packets to add to my collection. I got my potting soil out, along with that long-dormant stack of egg cartons I've been storing for just such an occasion (there's that re-using thing again!), and got to seed sowing! Those rocks are to ensure the tradewinds don't carry my seed trays off to the horizon.

 

So, I planted some seeds. Ok, I planted a lot of seeds! And this isn't even all of what I plan on growing. There are plenty more plants that will be direct-sown because I just don't have the seed tray capacity or the potting soil or the space for all of them! The list so far is as follows: tomatoes (University of Hawai'i, Marvel Striped, and Peacevine Cherry), pickling cucumbers, Vittoria eggplants, Brussels sprouts, Mammoth okra, yellow bell peppers, jicama, broccoli, kale, rainbow chard, mesclun mix lettuce, mustard greens, arugula, calendula, nasturtiums, Crystal Palace lobelia, Double Pinwheel marigolds, sunflowers, lavender, Mammoth dill, cilantro, & tarragon. 

For direct-sow: 3 sisters (U of H sweet corn, Manoa pole beans, & I'll sample kabocha, zucchini, butternut & spaghetti squashes in hopes that at least 1 variety will be successful), beets (Early Wonder & Bull's Blood), radishes, & Scarlet Nantes carrots.

What the heck am I going to do with all these plants?? Well, that's why I have my handy-dandy garden plan, of course! With all my gardening practice, I'm sure you'll be shocked to know I've never actually sat down before an empty space and drawn out a plan for my garden. I've always been a bit of an improviser, sometimes to my detriment. So this time, I'm coming in with a plan... on graph paper, even! I physically measured out the space I have & drew it out on the graph, where 1 square = 1 foot. I'm really shocked at how much I'm able to fit into a space when I plan it out in advance! I made sure to lay out plants in accordance with the sun exposure on my plot: rows run east-west, tallest plants on the north side (left side of paper), & partial shade plants on the south side where a tree provides afternoon shade. I also grouped plants as best as possible into families to facilitate crop rotation. I'm still working out other details, like the fencing necessary to keep playful puppies at bay, living borders, pathway materials that don't double as snail/slug hotels, inter-cropping some companion plants, etc. Phew! Sounds like a lot of work... Stay tuned!

Below is the Journal for our old garden in Paia. This spans Sept. '09 - Feb '11.
Enjoy! 
______________________________
Welcome to Our Garden!

Our backyard garden is one of our favorite places on Earth! We broke ground almost one year ago. What started as a small hobby to grow some herbs and veggies for enjoyment, has grown into a nearly full-time project. The great thing about gardening in Hawai'i is: plants really thrive. The tough thing about gardening is Hawai'i is: everything thrives here! The garden is in constant evolution and likes constant attention. If I turn my back for too long, I might be buried in weeds, overrun with one pest or another, or way far behind on a harvest. These are difficult lessons to maintain for someone who grew up gardening in a place with a single growing season. There is no time off!

So we toil away, experimenting with a variety of herbs, vegetables, and ornamentals. We even grow enough to provide a substantial supplement to our meals. Now, the focus is turning to implementing soil-building practices on a rotating basis through the garden. This should allow us to continue to enjoy year-round gardening, while giving back to the Earth as much, if not more, than we receive from it. This involves such practices as rotating cover crops and composting, both in piles and directly in the soil, as well as through a worm bin. As we become more intimate with the particular environment here, we are also increasingly diversifying our plant population, which should increase the health of the garden as a whole.

I hope you'll find some tips of interest to you here. We document our garden lessons for much the same reason we teach yoga: these things have enriched our lives tremendously, and we hope they serve you as well. We'll keep you posted on new developments!

A Garden in Time

Let's take a look at the evolution of our garden, in panoramic time-lapse of sorts.

September 2009
Our Garden's (ahem) humble beginnings...

That's right, our garden started as a trash heap. I am deeply grateful to Scott for braving the centipedes and other creepy-crawly critters to clean up this lovely mess so we could have a garden at all!


October 2009

This is the garden in its clean slate state.

Scott worked hard to clean it up to this level. We had our fingers crossed that the garbage you see above at least added some nutrients to the soil!

We also saw the opportunity to claim additional garden area from a sizable swath of turf covered with patchy brown grass. You can see at the bottom of this photo the line we drew through the grass that would be the new boundary of the garden.

Despite the fairly barren state in which we found the garden, we did have some lovely residents. There's aloe everywhere, large plumerias, bananas, succulents, a rosemary bush, jasmine vines, and gorgeous little elephant bushes. Here you can see the rosemary on the right, an elephant bush in the center, and aloe underneath the plumeria on the left.

We were operating on a very tight budget, with limited tools at our disposal. So we undertook to till the entire garden by sheer manpower. This was no easy task in the hot tropical sun! It was certainly nice to make it a community event, and share the burden amongst loved ones!

This picnic table immediately became our nursery and staging area for seedlings and new plants. It's centrally located in the garden and gets plenty of sun, making it the perfect place to hatch new babies!

Here you can see one of the last of our piles of cleared brush from the garden area, in front of what was to become our herb section. We also see one of our lovely team members, responsible for many of the "hard labor" tasks in the garden!

There are some of the bananas I mentioned that were already in residence. This is a considerably shadier area, largely because of the banana leaves, and is something very important to keep in mind when designing the placement of your plants. I found it helpful to come outside at different times of day for several days, until I became familiar with the pattern of sunlight.

The corner of the lanai on the right side of the photo would become another nursery for cuttings and a showcase for our potted plants.

Looking at these photos that are now 1 year old is very strange for me. The garden has evolved so much, that it seems bizarre to think it ever looked as it does here. When working with your own garden, I highly recommend keeping a photo-journal like this. It's easy to lose sight of how much work I'm actually doing when I get caught up in the day-to-day tasks. How rewarding to have such firm evidence of the progress your garden is making!

January 2010

Now things are really growing! Here, we see butternut squash and zucchini to the left, and cherry tomatoes and strawberry papaya trees in the back corner.

I have yet to be successful growing any squash or zucchini in this space. They inevitably succumb to powdery mildew, root mealy bugs, or fussiness over water levels.

The tomatoes, however, do well despite occasional bouts with powdery mildew.

The papayas too, are doing well, though they took some time to get comfortable in their new home.






Here, we have Bull's Blood beets, Hawaiian chili peppers, arugula, green bell peppers, and radishes.

Bull's Blood beets have the tastiest greens for raw salads or cooking, The roots need very loose soil to grow to any decent size.

The Hawaiian chilies grow abundantly!

They and the bell peppers are susceptible to whitefly infestations. I spray them regularly with either a strong spray of water or an antifungal spray. This damages the larvae left on leaves enough to keep the population under control.

Arugula and radishes love it here and grow quickly. Radishes are ready in 3 weeks, and arugula must be cut regularly to prevent it becoming too spicy.

We also have garlic chives and green onions there, both of which grow happily and require little maintenance.

Here, on the left, we have more arugula and mesclun mix greens. They grow much better in the winter and spring here, because it's a bit cooler and we get more rain then.

This is the herb section. From left we have spearmint, sage in back, oregano, italian basil, dill, and lemon basil.

Spearmint and oregano have been quite happy.

Sage refuses to grow here, no matter what I try, it inevitably withers and dies. I'm stumped!

Dill is a magnet for mealy bug farms, and doesn't last long here.

The basils do very well in general, making for lots of pesto!

On the left here is an italian basil I rescued for a friend, when she moved. When I got the plant, it had literally 2 leaves, but recovered quickly and with force!

Next to the basil is what looks like a tiny weed, but is actually a broccoli plant. You'll see him in all his glory later.

In the center here you see a small lemon balm plant. Lemon balm makes a nice addition to herbal tea, complementing mint beautifully. The leaves are pretty hairy, so be sure to strain them.

The banana plant stand behind it produces a couple of different varieties of bananas, and keeps us well-stocked.


Beware of leaving things like trash cans in the garden for too long! Once we hauled these away, we found an abundant slug farm underneath them.

You can see a couple of geraniums in pots there, to the right of center. One is a citronella geranium, and the other is a chocolate mint geranium. We planted some of their cloned cuttings by the corner of the lanai.

Spray to prevent powdery mildew:

2 gallons water

2 tbsp baking soda

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2-3 drops dish soap

Shake mixture well and spray leaves with a fine mist. Make sure to spray both tops and undersides of leaves, as mildew begins on undersides. Spray once a week, and in the evening. The oil will magnify the sun's rays and burn leaves if sprayed in the morning or heat of the day. The baking soda controls the pH environment on the leaves, discouraging the growth of mildew/fungus.

From seed we grew the squash, zucchini, beets, arugula, radishes, mesclun mix, and broccoli. We bought seedlings for the tomatoes, papayas, chilies, bell peppers, onions, chives, mint, oregano, sage, basils, and lemon balm. I find it nice to purchase some seedlings to jump start the garden, giving you some time to experiment with seed germination. 

April 2010

  

 Spring is here! From left, we have more Bull's Blood beets and radishes, okra starts, strawberry papayas in back, cherry tomatoes, and butternut squash.
The beets and radishes did really well in this spot, because the soil had more sand content and was therefore looser, allowing for bigger roots.
The cherry tomatoes produced fabulously through the winter, finally succumbing at the end of this month to spider mites. Spider mites seem to be the death knoll around here. They have only descended upon plants that are already on their last legs. More about them later.

 This round of butternut squash was the best I've been able to muster. I was able to harvest finger-long squash babies before the leaves completely died back. The culprit this time was root mealybugs. Until you are well familiar with the presence and symptoms of these buggers, it's easy to lose plants to them without any idea of what went wrong. I find them to be one of the most insidious garden pests of all. They only increased in population through the summer. More about them later, too.

 From left, we have catnip hanging in the tree, more beets, Hawaiian chilies, arugula, squash, bell peppers, garlic chives, green onions, rosemary, and elephant bushes.
I experimented with laying cardboard down, as I had read about its use for weed control and cheap mulch. At first it seemed like a good idea, but a few weeks in I peeked underneath and realized I had created track housing for slugs. Of course, the cardboard disappeared shortly thereafter.

 Here we can see more arugula and a baby crop of mesclun mix greens. To the right, we had a baby dill that performed admirably considering our ants made it the site of their aphid and mealybug farm.
Apparently, ant farming of plant pests is called mutualism in scientific speak, and more broadly refers to the way two organisms interact to derive increased survival benefits. Whatever you call it, to watch the process in action is maddening and fascinating all at once.

 The prominent plant we see here is the naupaka kahakai. This native plant is commonly found on the shoreline, and absolutely loves our backyard. It is easy to propagate and grows like a weed. Even better than that, no pests or disease seem to touch it.
From left, we have spearmint, oregano, Italian and lemon basil. All have lived here quite comfortably.

 Here we see more Italian basil, and broccoli on the right. In the background are hibiscus plants with an as yet unidentified variety of ti plant for bookends.
We can also see my drip line irrigation system, running along the base of the plants. I started with the flat hose that's very thick and heavy with holes in one side. For me it was difficult to maneuver and covered less territory with water than I wanted.

 I eventually moved to the flexible, canvas type soaker hose. This has been much more functional for my uses. It needs no staking and is easy to move around with the ever changing cast of characters in my garden. It also soaks down its entire surface, which seems to be more effective at delivering water to my plants.

On the left, the broccoli has grown to good size, producing lots of small heads with tasty greens. 

 Here we have lemon balm, cilantro, and a red coleus in front of the banana stand.
Cilantro is a winter plant here, bolting immediately in heat, yet needing lots of sun.
Luckily it's very easy to harvest from it a new batch of seeds for the next crop.

The red coleus above and a green coleus here (just to the right of the brown trashcan) have been delights. They flourish in part shade and have very little water requirements.
Coleus has been one of the easiest plants to propagate from cuttings. When this green one started to die inexplicably, I saved 4 cuttings that all rooted readily and are now big, beautiful plants like their mother.

 Finally, we get a glimpse of the lanai nursery. From left, coleus cuttings rooting in water, aloe, citronella geranium baby, still unidentified purple flowering plant, Boston fern, 2 baskets of sempervivum succulents that started as a small $1 pot from the county fair, and a geranium.

 Here we have, from left, crassula ovata jade, a different variety of sempervivum succulents, calendula, and another variety of ti plant.
Ti plants are commonly placed around houses in Hawai'i, as they provide protection from negative spirits, according to local folklore.
Calendula flowers are an excellent addition to herbal teas or salads. Studies suggest that calendula has anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties.

July 2010

Wow, a lot happened in 3 months! From left: Bull's Blood beets, radishes, double pinwheel marigolds, mammoth okra, and tomatoes both on the trellis in back and in the pots in the foreground.

The marigolds grow into sizable bushes, reaching 5 feet in height with staking. They produce hundreds of small blooms that make a soothing tea and brighten up salads. 

The okra have lived up to their name, with prolific seed pods and heights of about 6 feet at the tallest. They have been stellar summer plants, displaying considerable pest and disease resistance. 

Behind the potted tomatoes are Vittoria eggplants. They started from seed and took a couple of months to get well-established. Under the summer heat, they've produced several dozen fruits that have been delectable. Their large leaves, however, have been a haven for whitefly. They are also quite thirsty plants that prefer staking as the heavy fruits develop.

On the newly-erected trellis we have Early Girls, Super Steak, and cherry tomatoes with marigolds intercropped.

The Early Girls have been fantastic, producing some of the best-tasting tomatoes I've ever had! This has been the first time I've studiously pruned tomatoes, and have reaped the rewards of this practice. They still have bouts of powdery mildew. The Super Steaks and cherries on the trellis, however, have not produced anything at all, and are barely surviving. They might have just been crowded out by the Early Girls, though I'm not sure as to the exact reason.

Our friendly neighbors and willing hard-laborers constructed this trellis out of rebar, a couple of 2x4's, some large gauge wire, and hemp twine. I'm so very grateful for this. Thanks for the great work, guys!

In front of the chili pepper bush, we have the remnants of a couple of bush bean plants. The beans did well briefly, but were cut short by Chinese rose beetles' affinity for their leaves and an inability to withstand the afternoon sun here.

The arugula in the center loves the heat and seems to be impervious to pests and disease. However, it bolts quickly in high temperatures. Shade tents are a good idea over greens here in the tropics.

I planted several garlic cloves in front of the chives, but didn't see any sprouts for several weeks. I thought they failed to sprout, and tilled that ground to prepare for a new okra crop. Several weeks later, randomly spaced garlic leaves started to poke through the soil. Go figure.

The big white sink on the picnic table is the home of our Adirondack blue potatoes. I put them in the sink in an attempt to protect them from the ravages of our local ant hordes. I made the mistake of omitting a water moat to most effectively block the ants from gaining access. As such, they eventually found the potatoes, and I wound up having to harvest them a couple of weeks early. They were small, but really beautiful in color and quite tasty.

We still have two of three basils, though they won't make it much longer. They each have devastating root mealybug farms, and I'll soon have to cart them out. This section of the garden seems to be a great candidate for our first cover crop. If we start building better soil we might stave off some of the pest problems that are arising.

The red coleus on the right has taken a tremendous liking to its spot. It doesn't require much water, as it is shielded from the hottest afternoon sun by the banana stand.

We finally moved those garbage cans and set up an arched trellis for a jasmine bush we moved out of the shadows. I lashed several palm frond stems together to form the arch, and securely anchored it in the ground. I transplanted the jasmine bush to bring it out in the sunlight, as more sun encourages steadier blooming. The bush is fairly mature, so went into transplant shock for several weeks afterward. 

We can also see the green and white coleus in the center of this photo. It has been flourishing here for nearly a year, but will soon succumb to a wilt of undetermined origin. As I mentioned in the last section, I was able to save several cuttings from it.

We can also just barely see the 2 nasturtium seedlings I just planted in front of the coleus. They will fare better in this spot than in any other spot of the garden yet.

The aforementioned garbage cans were in the garden for so long because they had become an anchor for the web of a prominent garden resident: the garden spider we named Charlotte, of course. She stayed with us for about 6 months, grew to the length of thumb, gave birth to thousands of offspring, and did her fair share of garden pest management. When we installed the jasmine trellis, I attempted to move her web. She promptly moved her web to higher spot along the trellis, and seemed to be doing fine with the changes. Sadly, though, she disappeared for good within a couple of weeks. She is missed.

October 2010

We're wrapping up the warm, dry season here. The okra are nearly done producing. The beets and radishes were less healthy than usual, so I pulled them all, and their section will get a cover crop. The potted cherry tomatoes and eggplants are also winding down. The tomatoes on the trellis are showing signs of spider mite development, signaling their approaching demise as well. This entire section of the garden will soon undergo a winter season overhaul, preparing for cooler-weather plants.

The big leafy patch in the center here is a glorious pickling cucumber crop. They have been super fast-growing, and are putting out large, plump cucumbers that are the juiciest, most crisp, most delicious tasting cucumbers I think I've ever had.
I should have been growing them all summer! We had a week-long rainstorm roll through to usher in slightly cooler autumn temperatures, and the cucumbers almost immediately kicked the bucket. I will definitely be growing these in large batches next summer!

On the table in big pots I have a new Italian basil in the foreground, and a Thai basil in the back. I'm taking every precaution and growing my new basils as potted plants until I have completed a round of cover cropping to refresh our soil. I don't want to risk losing another round to those pesky ants and their beloved mealybugs!
The Thai basil is new to me, and I regret not having tried it sooner. Its flavor has distinct undertones of licorice and mint. Traditionally used in Thai red curries, I've been adding it to nearly everything I cook lately. I love it!

We've previously been keeping the naupaka kahakai pruned back, but lately I've let it spread its wings, and I think it's looking quite spectacular. It's certainly one of the more striking features of the garden.
Beneath that, the spearmint patch is making a renewed effort at expansion. It had died back considerably at the end of the summer, but now it is making a healthy comeback, and rapidly growing its borders. I say you can never have too much mint, so I'm letting it run wild, as well.

The tee-pee trellis housed a brief attempt to grow bush beans again in a different part of the garden, but that crop didn't get very far. So I've sown a cover crop there instead. It's made up of nitrogen-fixing legumes like peas, soybeans, and sweet-peas. The only problem being that the local snails and slugs have quite the taste for legume seedlings. They are decimating this cover crop before it even gets going. So I may need to choose a different crop, one that they don't find so tasty.

The bananas are keeping us pretty consistently stocked, and you can see one bunch that's almost mature in the center.
The red coleus is still getting larger. I've taken some cuttings to root for new plants, and have several of them ready for new homes. 
Our jasmine has come out of shock and grown new leaves, immediately bursting forth with a dense crop of blooms. The delicate flowers make a fragrant tea that is positively divine when steeped with a small bit of vanilla bean.

The chocolate mint and citronella geraniums have also blown up to become veritable bushes. Interestingly enough, the aroma of the chocolate mint has taken on a citrus undertone, apparently mutating under the influence of its citronella neighbor. This is a strange phenomenon that I've heard about, but for which I can find little explanatory detail. A note on semantics: what are commonly called geraniums are likely actually pelargoniums, both being separate genuses of the same family. They can be distinguished by their flower symmetry, but since ours have yet to bloom, I can't tell for certain to which genus they belong.

January 2011 

Happy new gardening year! Truth be told, it's actually been a rough start to this new garden year. You see, in December I pulled out all the spent summer/fall crops. Then I started new winter crops: radishes (at right), broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, rainbow chard, mesclun mix, mustard greens, and butterhead lettuce. Then I went on a 3 week trip, during which it rained here at home. It rained a lot. This brought out the snails and slugs in epic-movie-sized armies. They feasted. They left none alive. 

 

Enter mother nature's impeccable timing. Not long after coming home, we found that we'd need to move houses a bit earlier than expected. So I suppose I should thank those pesky, slimy soldiers of doom for saving me the effort of caring for young crops that wouldn't transplant to a new garden. So... thanks. I guess.

Since I'm currently in the process of cloning and potting my more well-established plants for the move, there's not much interesting to see at the moment. So, we'll take a visual tour of the December garden instead.

We can see one of 3 banana bunches in the photo above, that happened to mature within 2 weeks of each other. That's a lot of bananas! Being overrun with bananas is a good time to peel 'em, slice 'em, and freeze 'em. 

I also had this lovely ray of sunshine awaiting our return: the 1st ripe strawberry papaya! It was perhaps the most delectable papaya I have ever tasted. Ever. The flesh is deep pink, and the flavor has succulent overtones of coconut and strawberry. Wow! It took 15 months from seedling to ripe fruit. I am definitely saving seeds for my new garden!

Under the trellis I planted the rainbow chard, mesclun mix, and butterhead lettuce. The leguminous cover crop to the extreme left met the slimy-jawed fate that befell the other seedlings. The crop in the foreground was brussels sprouts. I was particularly excited about this one, because I've never tried to grow them before. There's always next time.

 

 Where the big Hawaiian chili bush once was, now rests its skeleton. It had become overrun with ants (therefore also root mealybugs, no doubt). So I tried pruning it way back, something I should have done as a matter of general maintenance some time ago. My gamble doesn't seem to have paid off, though. 2 months after pruning, it shows no signs of life. Guess I'm in the market for a new chili bush.  In front of that I planted kale, and in front of that went broccoli. Next to the arugula I planted mustard greens.

 

 The mustard greens have been the only (only!) successful winter crop. They grew at weed speed, were super tasty as young leaves, and packed a tasty horseradish punch as mature leaves. Even more important, the snails and slugs don't like them! 

Clearly, they also don't like the arugula, judging by the big, overgrown patches of arugula on the left and right of this photo. 

The garlic chives are also doing well, along with the big rosemary bush. It's nice to have some mainstays.

Ah, the pica-nic table! The basils (Thai and Italian) are splendid still. Pots of aloe and pineapple are bursting out of their containers. Catnip is still pluggin' along. Currently, I've got this table loaded to the brim with cuttings for cloning. Given time, I'll likely post some photos of those in a "movin' on up" edition of The Garden page.

The naupaka kahakai has become massive. I've cut it back quite a lot, already. I've also started some cuttings of it along the back wall. I figure that they're likely to root easily, and will provide some nice coverage along that wall if they thrive like their mother. 

The spearmint is still quite happy, and spreading. 

The oregano seems to be surviving somehow. I had left it for dead, after saving some cuttings from it. Turns out it's much hardier than I expected.

The leguminous cover crop here, under the tee-pee, didn't make it far before being devoured. The big broccoli, now well over a year old, is finally ending its life cycle. It has done so well here. I can't wait to grow a larger crop next time. 

I'm trying to start a succulent crop in the clay pot there in the background. I think it'd make a nice feature for the garden. Yet, as prolific as succulents tend to be, they are not taking so easily to this pot.

 

 The red coleus has become a relative giant. It's funny how we can never predict what will thrive and what will wither away. I've planted many things in and around this spot, but only this coleus has survived it. And not just survived, but taken off! It recently fell over in a storm. I thought about staking it upright, but its roots are intact, and it seems to be comfortably spreading across the otherwise bare ground here. I think I'll let it be.

 

The jasmine's growth has plateaued at the moment, but it still seems healthy.

I planted nasturtiums between the ginger and the elephant bush. They are now covered by the overgrowth of their neighbors, but seem to relish the shade here. My recent venture up the volcano to Kula saw abundant nasturtium growth, confirming my guess that they prefer a cooler climate than Paia.

 The ginger patch has revealed its invasive tendencies. It seems almost impossible to keep it from spreading. It did flower recently, though, uncovering such a beautiful blossom (right). It's such a treat for the garden serve up clues like this that help me know it more intimately. The bloom leads me to believe this variety of ginger is alpinia zerumbet, or shell ginger. This is apparently not edible, but makes for nice landscaping... if you can keep its spread in check.

 Here on the corner of the lanai, the citronella and chocolate mint geraniums are voluminous. They suffered some die-back while I was gone, especially the chocolate mint. This was a shame, as they had finally become a really big, beautiful part of the landscape. However, a lot of creative pruning and re-staking has given them a jump start to keep going.

 

 And finally, we have the lanai. It's become quite the nursery these days. We have baby coleus (red and green), divided ferns, calendulas, sempervivums, pineapples, lavender, lobelia, aloe, and jade. 

Again, given time to do so, I'd love to break from the quarterly garden update structure, to provide documentation of my current "garden in motion." Moving a garden, and starting a new one, is so exciting and bittersweet. I've learned so much from this garden, as my intimacy with the earth has begun to mature. I think I've learned just enough to be at that point where I feel I cannot possibly ever learn enough about this relationship with nature that we call "gardening." I will miss this space, this oasis I cultivated in the midst of what is otherwise a crush of humanity on depleted soil. Yet, I'm so looking forward to its next incarnation. I can't wait to see what it looks like! I'll keep the updates coming...