April showers brings us healthy looking plants. What a blessing rain is!
We finished mulching the gourd patch. Sometimes we had the feeling we were never to get it done. Boy does it feel good to stand there and look at the patch! On top of it we are building the trellises. Last week we harvested a truck load of guava poles and already need more. Yikes! Guess we go back and harvest more. I know that a gardener never has enough compost or manure, but I didn't know that applied to guava poles too. 
Purple Queen and Carson snap beans are now in the ground along with Oregon Giant snap peas. And in the hoop house we seeded lots and lots of trays full of all sorts of veggies and herbs. Some of the early plantings have surplus, so we will be taking them to the Naalehu Farmers Market to sell… cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, salad burnet, and an assortment of cherry and grape tomato plants.
Harvest today consisted of Irish Cobbler white potatoes, Detroit Dark Red beets, Moneta beets, the first kohlrabi, Tuscan kale, and a few snap peas.
April 17th
Hey, the garden is actually starting to look like a real garden! I just looked up one day and waalah!.... garden! Rows and rows of veggies and a hoop house full of seedlings. It feels so good.
Failure! -- Just about everything we have planted so far are done well. But we had our first major failure....Carson beans. Very poor germination, so we just tilled the bed over and planted something else. We don't know what went wrong because all the rest of the seed from that company have been doing really well. Must have been a problem with the main supplier or grower. Oh well, move on.
Since the last update we have planted more onion seedlings that were donated to us, along with bean plants and bush cucumber plants also donated. They have taken well. Also direct seeded are more snap beans, peas, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. We have other plants ready to go in: chard, carrots, parsley, basil, kohlrabi, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. As we have the time we will get them situated.
We are in the process of mulching the entire garden that we have planted so far. Diane got about half of it done already and I am creating more mulch for her. The mulched plants are growing so much better than the ones that are still waiting to be mulched. And the mulch is preventing weeds from taking over the garden beds and walkways. Not having to spend time weeding is a major plus.
Harvest: kohlrabi, kale, snap peas, beets, and potatoes. We are discovering that really fresh = really tasty. Harvests are small right now but it is giving us the incentive to plant more and more. We have planted lots of potatoes, sweet potatoes, snap beans, and onions. So we are looking forward to having plenty of extra to share with Ka'u residents.
Our hoophouse is overflowing. Time to make a shelter lean-to for the hydroponic lettuce in order to free up bench space. We are finding the hoophouse to be essential for our garden. Plans call for at least 3 more, if not 5. I am sure we can use all the space.
Rain. Blessed rain. We have been getting regular, productive showers. As a result we seldom need to use much water, basically just in the hoophouse. So far no need for an irrigation system.
Time to rototill. We have been working on degrassing and soon will have another large section done. Degrassing is very time consuming and very hard labor. We will all be relieved when this part of the garden development is done.
April 30th
So far we have been very lucky with the weather. Weekly rain, not too much wind, just enough sun to make things grow but not dry out. Wonderful.
The gourds are growing rapidly, sending vines out in all directions. Sue has been adding more trellises and training the vines to stay inside the patch. Soon the gourds will have a mind of their own and grow wildly, taking over this part of the garden. We can see it happening! Sue is proud to announce that we are certain that of our first baby gourd that has taken and is growing. Now that's cool!
The seedlings that did not sell at the market have been planted into the garden -- tomatoes, kale, cabbage, broccoli, and kohlrabi. They are a nice addition to our growing space.
Mulching has been caught up. The whole garden that is planted so far is under a light cover of mulch. The plants that need more, such as the potatoes and sweets, have about a 6" thick layer. The rest have only 3 inches but we shall add more as we make it. The idea is to have everything under at least 6 inches of mulch.
The perennial herb bed has been enlarged, plus de-rocked and rototilled. Just in time to plant out the herbs that Mc has been growing in the hoop house. The tumeric, from the Heskers Farm, is planted and we eagerly await the new sprouts. The trenches that the taro was planted in are now backfilled and the taro is growing well.
Minor disaster -- a mouse ate some of the seedlings in the hoop house. We hadn't thought about that possibility. So this will be a problem we need to address.
Harvest: Most of the beets are harvested, as are the first crop of sugar snap peas and kohlrabi. The kale is still producing nicely and so are the Irish Cobbler potatoes. The potatoes have been very productive!
The garden has chalked up its first significant donations of food. Beets and greens enough for 30 people were donated to a local dinner. And some of our hydroponic lettuce was given away to needly families. We all feel a nice sense of goodwill knowing we are starting to help the people of Ka'u.
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