April 2013

April 8th 

          No rain yet, but I keep hoping. The garden is really getting dry and we will have to be irrigating the plants soon. Right about now I'd do a rain dance in the nude if it would help! Thank heavens we have county water to fall back on. .......so that I don't have to follow through with that idea. Naked at my age would not be a pretty sight!

       Today at the garden felt like a real good day, didn't it? A variety of potato, Red Dale, got harvested today. Nice looking spuds. Lots of beans and eggplant were ready too, as were some leeks and green onions. A couple of pipinola. Saw a few takers of various herbs. Good! Those lima beans are growing and hugh, full of flowers, but no pods yet. Any ideas? Are we doing something wrong? Possibly not a good variety for Hawaii? I've never grown them before, so possibly it takes longer for the pods to fill out?

          Lots of seedlings got potted up in the hoop house. And lots of boxes of potted plants got moved down to the holding area in Naalehu for the coming Spring Fling. Plus there appears that there will be plenty more ready in time for the sale.

         Missy is making business cards for us to use at Spring Fling. What a great idea. She showed us the final draft today. We shall see how they work out and make modifications as needed. 

          Today the coffee trees and tomatoes got a nice watering, as did the gourds and herbs. The main garden got a light watering today, and will be watered again tomorrow. More beets got planted out. More seeds were started in the hoop house. I saw the Sweet William leaving the garden. It didn't bloom for us, but maybe it will do better for someone else. The plants were started over a year ago and out side of becoming green and bushy, there have been no flowers. 

          Looks like the Chinese rose beetle attacked one of the plantings of beans. We might consider tilling it under and trying something else there that the beetle doesn't like. Gotta keep those bugs confused. Doug and Laurie suggest that we try a newspaper barrier, so that's what we'll do. I'll be thrilled if it works. The Chinese rose beetle is a tough one to control is you are not available at dusk to pick them off the plants. 

          We had a visitor today who shared lunch with us....Olivia L. She lives down in Green Sands. She has expressed interest in the garden in the past. Possibly now that she has seen it she might join the effort. She really likes growing taro and has been very successful with tilapia.

         Lunch turned out to be dang good: BBQ beef over homemade whole wheat bread; egg and cheese spread; beets; fried potatoes; pasta salad; tuna pasta salad; international cookies for dessert. The beef was local from Michele Galimba. The herbs, potatoes, onions, and celery were from the garden. The eggs were from our own chickens and the cheese was homemade from local milk. 

April 15th

          'Twas a very nice morning to garden. Maybe not a perfect day, but a very nice one. Lots of activity in the hoop house. The benches were practically empty at the start, and ended up with a decent covering of trays and pots. Since most everything was sold over the weekend, it felt good to get the hoophouse refilled. Yes, the Spring Fling was a super success. Almost all the plant starts, taro, and wood ash sold, as well as several packets of seeds. We got the word out to plenty of new people about the existence of the community garden. 

          Doug wasn't successful in getting the little tiller started today. So it's off to the engine hospital to be fixed. It's the first time that it's broken in the two years that it's been working. That's the best track record I've ever had on a tiller. ......The lawnmower is working again ok. I found debris in the gas tank which must have been blocking the fuel flow. Once cleaned out, the mower is running fine. Carl will be harvesting more grass clippings so that we have the mulch we so desperately need for the veggies and gourds.  

          The ducks seemed overjoyed to be released this morning, flying and fluttering about. I found a treasure trove of slugs when I harvested potatoes, and those greedy ducks ate every one of them. Good guys!

          We discovered that Blue Lake pole bean is not a good variety for us. Either it doesn't do well with our growing methods or else our harvesting habits aren't compatible. Either way, the beans are fibrous compared to other varieties that we have tried. So we will retire this variety.

          More onions were ready to plant out. And some more seedlings made their way into the garden. Doug prepared a good sized patch of soil down beside the current herb garden. Looks like we will be able to expand the herbs. Super! There is a bucket of lemon grass awaiting a home.

          Lots of potatoes were ready to dig......purples, whites, and reds. The first onions are bulbing up. A few peppers were picked. Still have lots of eggplant, kale, chard. A little broccoli was there. Still some portuguese cabbage producing, as is the arugula. Radishes are ready. More sweet potatoes are ready. A few beets could be pulled. The celery and Thai basil are regrowing, and the holy basil looks good. The yacon is about one foot high now. Both the tomatoes and the gourds got some TLC. In the next few weeks both of those garden areas should take off. Before and after photos will be impressive, just like last year I hope.

          Lunch was enjoyable, as usual. Quinoa salad, spinach salad, pipinola pickles, stringbeans pickles, beef stew, sweet potatoes, fried green beans, and omelet. Alot of the ingredients were from our own garden

 

April 23rd

          .Another week has gone by....again! For some reason, the weeks seem to be getting shorter. When I was a kid, the school week lasted forever!

          The garden got a nice bit rain this week. Of course it could use another 3-4 inches, but it was nice seeing some rain that actually was enough to get the soil wet for a change. In order to conserve some of that moisture, we hope to harvest a lot of lawn clippings over the next couple days to use as mulch.

          Quite a bit of the seeds that were planted in the hoop house have begun to sprout. I didn't take note if the variety names, but a saw a lot of baby plantlets. Out in the garden I saw at least another row of potatoes ready to harvest. And plenty of radishes. Is that baby bok choy out by the gourd patch? If so, it's ready to harvest the thinnings. They should be very tender and tasty at this stage.

          Other gardeners around the island are reporting a major outbreak of aphids. Maybe we should check all our plants for infestations, if you see any, there is safer soap spray in the hoop house. If it runs out, we can make our own out of dish soap that is effective against aphids.

          We harvested plenty of veggies including some beets and sweet potatoes.

April 30 th............

         This Monday was a good harvesting day : potatoes, pipinolas, arugula, radishes, eggplants, onions, carrots, kale, and more. There are a few sweet potatoes that we can harvest next week, plus the first of the lima beans.

          A few notes :

....Lima bean - although the packet describes it as a bush, it could use some cage type trellising next time. The bean pods are so heavy that they are dragging the rather large plant down and many pods are laying on the ground within reach of the slugs.

...onions-- we can hold on harvesting them until they get bigger. Last year many grew to 3-4 inches in diameter! Some even bigger. The clue to look for, not just bulb size, is that a few that don't bulb up are bolting....that is, pushing up a flower stalk. Of course, volunteers can always harvest as they need them for their own tables. But as far as the surplus, they sell for a dollar an onion when they are giant sized.

... Elba variety of potato. We've discovered that this variety produces shallow tubers, right up by the soil surface. so this variety, as with the Russian Banana variety, need to be mulched to prevent tuber greening.

          Doug got the rototiller running again. 

          Lots of weeds pulled today! And rows got replanted. And the expanded herb garden got planted by Miss.  The gourd patch underwent a deweeding, now it needs to be mulched before those gourds realize their capabilities to grow rampantly. Once they start going, it's like risking your life to walk among them. Just remember what they did last year. 

          We had new volunteers checking out the garden today. I'm terrible with names...are they Vicky and ? Anyway.....welcome!!! We're glad you're moving here and would like to grow your own food. Looks like we'll be having a good time together.

          Lunch: 

Mouflon veggie soup. For those who didn't try it, mouflon tastes more like beef than lamb. All the veggies came from our garden except the tomatoes (which were local). Potato soup. 100% from the garden. Nastursium flowers were used for the peppery taste and the salt came from Honomolino bay.  Veggie stir fry over rice. All they veggies came from the garden (arugula, pipinola, onion greens, bok choy). Cucumber salad. Most ingredients were from the garden. Very refreshing taste!