June 2012

June 11th

          The past two weeks we have been blessed with rain. Not alot, but some just about every night. So the garden is smiling, the plants are singing. 

          After two weeks of working away at it, we have another section of garden ready for planting. The volunteers are eager to add all sorts of veggies, in fact, 10 times more than the space we have ready. But gee, that's great. It means we have another goal in mind.... prepare another section of garden. So today we actually started hacked down the giant tall weeds and moving them off. And the hard job of rock removal has begun yet again. 

          During these past two weeks we have added more plantings to the garden: french radishes, beans, cucumbers, lettuce, chard, assorted herbs, and jicama. And we have watermelon, summer squash, plus more beans and potatoes ready to go in. 

          Harvests are a regular job now : potatoes, daikon, radishes, kohlrabi, onions, snap beans (green, purple, and filet), snow peas, and assorted herbs. Volunteers have been tasting many herbs for their first time, herbs such as salad burnet, summer savory, cutting celery. 

          The past ten days we have been doing exactly what we aimed for when we started this garden...... getting food and food plants to the people of Ka'u. We have been both selling and giving these away, depending upon the situation. At the farmers' market we help people with their gardening questions and suggest which are the easy veggies to grow for the new gardeners. It has been very satisfying. 

June 13th

          Our gardening group consists of several experienced growers, but we still have failures that gives us the opportunity to learn new things. 

          Radishes: best sown in small blocks twice a week rather than one bigger block every two weeks. 

          Daikon: better in container beds for us because the roots grow so long. We have rototilled the ground down 6 inches, but that is not deep enough to make nicely formed daikon roots. Our daikon came out with 90 degree angles at 6 inches. 

          Row and aisle width: It is far easier to straddle a 2 foot wide row while weeding and harvesting. Any wider is too wide. We found that single rows of plants are not efficient in producing lots of food, and anyway that method was created for tractors and plows. We work the garden by hand, so a two foot wide bed works well. 

          Mulch and slugs: the slugs love the mulch, so we have to pay attention to keep slugs under control.

          Gourds: give them more space. Whatever you think is enough room, double it!

          Cucumbers: have seedlings ready to replant with once a month. We found that the plants "get old" about a month into production, so it is better to replant. 

          Have beans in small plantings separated from each other. Whitefly has found some of our small bean patches, but not others. Anywhere the bean rows are side by side, the whitefly eventually takes over both rows. But by skipping the rows around, the whitefly doesn't find it all. 

June 18th

          Today was an active planting day at the garden. 6 news varieties of potatoes were added, plus three types of beets (a red, a gold, and a white). More french breakfast radishes. Patty Pan summer squash. More cucumbers. Two varieties of snap beans. Two types of snow peas. We had used the rototiller to till compost and biochar into the beds where we had previously  harvested all the potatoes, snap beans, and peas. We don't replant a bed with the same vegetable again. Instead, we switch to a different type of veggie. For example, after the potatoes we planted beets. After the peas we planted potatoes. After the snap beans we planted radishes and squash. 

          In the hoop house, Mac was active sowing more seeds of dozens of items. Sue was all but swallowed up a by the gourds. She reported that we are seeing some melon fly damage now and the beginnings of mildew. She took steps to control the mildew with a copper spray (an organic approved method). We will be putting out fly traps and bait stations to help control their numbers. Carl used the mower and created mulch by mowing the grasses and weeds. The clippings make excellent mulch! All the volunteers kept themselves busy all morning. 

          Harvest today consisted of green snap beans, onions, swiss chard, kale, and mustard greens. 

          Over the weekend we had the opportunity to help some Ka'u residents by giving away more food: kohlrabi, chard, snap beans, potatoes, and our first cabbage. 

June 25th

          We are most of the way thru June already and we are seeing a lot more things coming out of the garden. Harvests are now seeing the addition of three types of chard, another type of kohlrabi, broccoli, round head cabbage, round sweet onions plus thick non-bulbing spring onions up to two inches thick! The herbs are all coming in strong: summer savoy, true greek oregano, cilantro, parsley, salad burnet, cutting celery, sweet marjoram, chives, garlic chives, dill, sage, and rosemary. In the potato department we are getting not just whites (tan skins, red skin, purple skin, and pink skin), but also pink fleshed and dark purple fleshed. A real rainbow of potatoes!

          What surprises us is that we are getting requests for vegetables now. People are looking for various odd kales and assorted greens, particular herbs, and other vegetables. We will try growing them all and keep you informed how our efforts go. But we also find that certain veggies we already have are in strong demand, especially onions (both bulb and spring type), greens, radishes, daikon, peas, beans, etc. If we wanted this effort to be a business, we surely would have little trouble selling our produce. But our focus is on producing food to help others in need, so a lot of what we grow will not be sold. 

          Problems in Paradise...... not all is rosy in the garden. We are seeing our share of pests. Whitefly has been especially bad, affecting some beds but not others. Slugs are a constant battle. Pickleworm requires vigilant attention. But now we have moved to the next horrible pest....fruit fly! The melon flies how found our garden. Egads! So this week we are learning how to control this problem pest. This one looks like will be much harder to control, but we shall see. 

May 2012

May 8th

          April showers surely brought on May flowers... plus lots of veggies too! We now have dozens of baby gourds rapidly growing  in the patch. All the baby plants from early April now look big, vigorous, and a joy to the eyes. Harvests have included potatoes, spring onions, assorted herbs, kale,  and the last of the first planting of peas and beets. 

          Now that we have been increasing the plantable garden space, our crops are getting larger. Most space devoted to potatoes, string beans, kale, daikon, broccoli, chard, beets, and sweet potatoes. We will soon be planting out more tomatoes, lettuce, and herbs. And we've started in the hoophouse the peppers, eggplants, winged beans, celery, and carrots. Mac just got in some new seeds of exotic oriental veggies, so it looks like our garden will be expanding ever more. 

          We are adding some new things to the garden (see what having some additional space does to a gardener? Makes 'em crazy to plant more!) including sunflowers, yacon, sugar cane, pipinola, and sweet corn. 

          Just about all the space that we have de-grassed will soon be filled with growing crops. So the next step will be to expand by tackling another big chunk of land. This work is hard and tiring, but at least now we will be able to rest a tad while gazing over the fruits of our labor-- the wonderful garden thus far. 

          We plan to start on the orchard by the end of this month. We are presently negotiating for orchard space. The best solution would be to have it adjacent to the community garden, but we have two other landowners offering to host an orchard. So we shall see what develops. So far we have several trees ready for the orchard: tangelo, pomelo, breadfruit, mountain apple, jackfruit, lemon, grapefruit, loquat, and banana. We will let you know next month where the orchard finally gets planted. 

          We plan to start hosting workshops this summer. Everything is starting to fall into place for it. This will be a totally new adventure for us and should prove to be very enlightening. We will be posting the dates on the website calendar in addition to posting a notice here on the blog. 

May 14th

          We are on the way to having a really great garden. The hoop house is pumping out plants, far too many to plant at our location. So we are selling some, but also giving dozens away to families who need and will use them. The compost bins are constantly being refilled, but so far it looks like we are making enough for the garden. For the first time we have managed to produce more biochar than we are using, but we will save it for replenishing the beds. 

          New developments: the horses are ready to move to the pasture. This will make life so much easier since we use lots of manure. The chicken pen is almost ready for the chicken move. Again, this will make life so much easier for us. The shed made the big move today! having the tools and supplies closer to the garden will be much, much nicer. 

          Harvests: Beets are all harvested now. The rest of the Irish Cobbler potatoes are harvested, and we set aside several for seed potatoes. Every week we have spring onions and herbs galore. 

May 15th

          The garden is ready for its next big step. It is ready for a formal name. We are reviewing a number of ideas and suggestions and will let you know our decision in a couple of days. 

          May 20 will be the first time the gate is open to the public. We will invite about 20 carloads of people to view the garden and learn about our efforts. We hope this inspires people to try gardening, and may be we will be lucky to find some more volunteers. Workshops will be part of the garden effort, so we will be listening closely to peoples' suggestions. 

          With the hoop house plants growing so rapidly, we spent time potting up seedlings. We also got more weedwacking and mowing done, since we could use some more mulch for the potatoes. A new variety of beans were planted, as were snap  and snow peas. These peas won't do as well with summer coming on, but we should be able to get some to eat. More chard and chinese cabbage is ready for planting. And we have decided to put in sunflowers. 

May 22nd

          Our first open gate event went well. We had a total of 18 people and learned that we can comfortably handle 20 cars. So for future events, 20 vehicles will be our cutoff. 

          Garden volunteers gave tours and explained what the garden project was all about. Sue J had a story board and a finished gourd on display in front of the gourd patch and spent quite a bit of time talking about the gourd patch. Many visitors availed themselves to the free veggie plants that we offered to let people take home for their own gardens. All in all, a very happy day! Hopefully we have inspired a few more people to grow more food. 

Gardening update: 

          More herbs are in the ground - cutting celery, Titan leaf parsley, chamomile. Another section of snap beans and snow peas are in, plus more chard. The boxes of seed potatoes just arrived in the mail, so we have to get on that real fast. Lots of varieties that we do not have. We also started lots of sweet potatoes cuttings, a yellow variety. Mc started more seeds in the hoop house, among them were a number of assorted chinese greens, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, dill, and other herbs. 

          Harvest: Purple, white, and fingerling potatoes. Green snap beans. Spring onions. Assorted herbs. Bok choy greens.  And our first cucumbers! 

          Feeding Ka'u: the trickle of food has just begun. We have given away radishes, beets, "pot greens", green snap beans, potatoes (white, yellow, purple, red skin white, purple/pink skin white), hydroponic lettuce, hydroponic assorted kits, and lots of started plants. Not much in volume yet, but the future is yet to come. 

          Educating Ka'u about food: We have held our first open gate event, explaining various growing techniques, showing people an actual garden that they could do at home, showing off an easy to build hoop house, showing two types of hydroponic set ups, demonstrating firsthand how to reuse "trash" items to use for food growing, easy no cost compost bins,  and low cost way to start seeds. We have given people veggie starts so that they can go home and try growing food themselves. We are available at the local farmers market to answer questions and help people. 

          In less than 6 months we have a successful garden, all from scratch. Ah, now for the next phase!

May 23rd

          For the first time we have had to water the main garden. Up until now our water use has been rather minimal, using it to start seeds and water in transplanted seedlings. So there we were, running the hose system for two hours. Yikes! 

          In order to reduce reliance on the water, we plan to aggressively mulch the garden. Digging in well prepared compost and chunky biochar between crops should also help a lot. And rather than using a sprinkler, we will install an irrigation set up that we can control where the water actually goes. No sense watering aisleways and perimeter grass! 

          I read in the newspaper that we should prepare for a drought lasting 5 months. So by tackling the problem now, we should be able to dramatically cut our need for irrigation. I'll let you know what we come up with and how well it works out. 

Farmers Market Update:

          Our presence at the local farmers market is finally getting the attention of the local people. Today we answered plenty of gardening questions and invited everyone to visit the website. We found many children to give starter plants and hydroponic kits to, hoping to ignite a spark for gardening. We also arranged to give hydroponic lettuce kits to many local seniors. 

May 30th

          Summer is finally here with its warmer mornings and dry evenings. The plants are responding to the increased warmth by growing faster, but we have to keep an eye on the water situation. We are adding a lot more compost to the soil and topping it off with mulch. 

          More seed potatoes have arrived from the mainland, so it will be a priority to get them all planted. The job is just about done. More seedlings from our own hoop house are ready for planting too. 

          Harvests are now including cucumbers on a regular basis, plus snap bean, spring onions, potatoes (hey, the solid purple ones are so pretty!), snow peas, bok choy greens, and herbs. We are getting an excess of food, so happily we are giving it away. 

           Today we gave hydroponic lettuce kits to the seniors of Naalehu. In order to avoid rat lung disease, hydroponic will be the way to go. The seniors have an interest in gardening, so next week we will be supplying them with assorted vegetable and herb seedlings. 

          This week we started clearing another section for expanding the garden. We hacked, wacked, and mowed. It will take us 2-3 weeks to have it ready for planting, but we will be able to add pipinola, more taro, and more tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers to the garden. I'm sure there will be room for other things too. 

          Our chickens are doing a fine job of producing eggs. We are getting around 18 eggs a day now. All different colors: light brown, chocolate brown, green, and white. And next year's pullets arrived yesterday in the form of newly hatched chicks. It will be 8 weeks before they are old enough to join the others at the garden. They are being raised organically from day one, so they will be a real asset to the egg production. The breed we choose is called Red Sex Link, a fine egg producer. The next batch of chicks will be Black Sex Link and Rhode Island Reds. They are due to arrive in late June. 

A Big Mahalo!

          We would like to take the time to thank everyone for their donations thus far. We have had numerous people donating newspapers, pots, egg cartons, seeds and plants, and milk jugs. The carpeting was very much appreciated. And we are still making things out of the pallets, and could easily use more. 

          A special thank you is for the person in Pennsylvania, Reds, who sent use a whole box full of an incredible assortment of seeds. Wow! We will have to keep you updated on how your seeds are growing. 

          Another special thank you to W.K. who donated money for us to buy supplies. Your donation was very, very welcome and gave us a chance to start sowing seeds. 

          And we are very appreciative of the help people gave to move the shed, and of course to Betty, who donated the shed. What great people!

          And how can we overlook Gloria, who without her generosity, the garden would not have started. Thank you for allowing us to use your land!

April 2012

April 9th 

          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. 

March 2012

March 1st

March marks two months of garden progress. 

1- We have rototilled more ground beds. Mowed lots of more grass. Weedwacked more fence line and rough areas. Made more compost. Added mulch to protect the various crops. 

2- First Harvest!!!!  -- radishes. Volunteers got to take home fresh, juicy, sweet radishes fresh right out of the ground. I can attest to the fact that they were yummy. What a vast improvement over supermarket radishes. This crop was our first test crop, so we don't expect much volume over the next weeks. But it proves we can grow delicious food here and so we shall sow more radishes. 

3- Onions survived being transplanted with no problems so far.

4- The first crop of sweet potatoes are growing well. The second crop is ready to plant into the beds. 

5- Hydroponics - We have had a lot of rain just recently. This has shown us that we need to get our hydroponic units under plastic roof protection. Therefore we are building two hoop houses to protect our plantings. 

6- Potatoes - The first crop planted hasn't poked its leaves above ground yet. This week we are planting the next crop, most likely All Blue and Caribe. 

7- Other crops- all have sprouted and so far, so good. Just in the seedling stages at this time. 

More volunteers are coming on board. Welcome Missy and Judith!!  Both are accomplished gardeners. Their help and expertise will be greatly appreciated. 

March 2nd

Today was a great work day. Lots of workers and lots of work accomplished. In just one session we got sooooo much done. 

1- Hoop house- We got the 20' x 10' hoop house almost completed today. Yikes! How wonderful. We still need to add the wire bracing and attach the poly film. Plus we would like to get some old carpeting to put on the ground, so we will keep an eye out for a donation (snag it before it ends up in the trash dumpster). We are so lucky to have a worker who has battery operated tools... drill, screwdriver, saw, all needed to build this house. We also built the first grow-bench and have it in place in the hoop house. 

2- Mamaki cuttings- We are going to try propagating mamaki via cuttings. Got our first trial planted today. 

3- Next crop bed- The next bed is raked, de-rocked, and made into bed rows. Next gardening day will see the onion sets and purple potatoes going into it. 

4- Radishes- Coming on like gangbusters. People got to take radishes home today although many of us ate our share right at the garden. 

5- More of the old irrigation piping got removed today, opening up areas for mowing, de-rocking, de-grassing, and eventually tilling. One volunteer worked diligently raking the next area scheduled for rototillering.

6-  We got the next compost bin started and about half filled. 

7- The gourd area got mulched part way. It is going to take a lot of mulch to do the whole job, but each trip to the garden will see more mulching material being delivered. 

8- One of our volunteers painted more of the pcv pipes for the hoop houses. We hope to make a second hoop house soon, and dream about a third when we can. 

9- New plant donations - We were surprised and pleased to see a box of plants and cuttings arrive at the garden today. Edible hibiscus, edible aloe, variegated citronella plant, and various perennial herbs. We staked out an area for the perennial herb garden and plan to start work on it next week. 

10- Potatoes- I am so thrilled to announce that the potatoes have sprouted. Having little green plants poking up through the soil is so incredibly rewarding. 

March 5th

1- Hoop House is ready for the poly film. We have all the bracing and ridgepole in place. Mac managed to find a rug for sale at a super reasonable price at the Kau Hospital Foundation rummage sale. He still needs more but it covers about half the floor. 

2- More area was cleared for rototillering. 

3- We had several herb plants, two geraniums, and two moringa trees donated to the garden this weekend. Wonderful nice additions. 

4- We discovered that the mamaki cuttings needed better protection from the late afternoon sun. The solution was to make some shade frames to place over the mamaki. 

5- More growing benches have been made for the hoop house and will be installed once we have the poly film in place. 

6- Radishes- The harvest goes on. We harvested another group that were ready today and it looks like we have one more picking left. 

7- Mulching the Gourds - This is going to take a lot of time, but we managed to get another section mulched. Oh yes, since the mulch is inoculated with IMO, we are applying a little sugar to the ground prior to laying down the mulch. We hope this gives the IMOs a little boast of a headstart since this ground needs some help getting up to speed. 

8- The next sweet potato bed has been de-rocked and rototilled. It is now ready to be planted. 

March 26th

Volunteers have been working like mad!

1- Hoop house: completed! Gabled ends for support. Poly film completely secured. Two growing tables. Carpet and cardboard flooring. We are already using it and have numerous flats seeded and individual plants in pots. (tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, various herbs) 

2- Leeks: the leek bed is planted. Over 400 baby leeks neatly tucked in rows. 

3- Sweet potatoes: Two more varieties are in the ground. And in the hoop house there are two more varieties growing slips. But these won't be ready to plant out for another week or two. 

4- Beets: baby beets are the size of small ping pong balls. We'll let the get a bit bigger before harvesting. 

5- Potatoes: We planted another bed with purple potatoes, and two others with a number of different varieties (yellow, pink, purple skinned whites, fingerlings, red skins). The earlier planting of white ones are doing great. We have mulched them twice now, making the mulch nice and deep to protect the baby potatoes.

6- Several of our mamaki cuttings seem to be surviving. We will leave them alone for a couple of weeks in hopes that they will push roots. 

7- The first taro bed is ready for planting. 

8- The first of the perennial herbs beds is ready for planting. We planted those herbs that were ready for the ground. 

9- The onions look strong and perky, both those that we grew from plants and from sets.

10- Hydroponic lettuce: half has been harvested so far.

11- Newly started seeds in the hoop house this week: various herbs, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, lettuce. Started out in the garden: potatoes, wing beans, gourds, peas, and beans. 

We have used all our biochar, compost, and mulch so we will need to take time to make more of the wonderful stuff. We never seem to have enough of any of it. it is in great demand!

March 30th

Well, March may be over, but the garden goes on!

We finish up March by planting taro, celery, and new herbs. Another pick up truck load of mulch was spread over the gourd patch. Looks like two more truckloads will finish it off. Volunteers applied more mulch to the sweet potatoes and regular potatoes. Another area got mowed down but still needs raking before it can be rototilled. And a 20' x 4' area got raked....this will be the area we plant Mexican oregano. The winged bean seeds are planted and the t-posts for the trellis are now in place. 

The hoop house use is expanding. More seedlings were transplanted into pots. The hydroponic tray has been moved inside and cleaned up for use. More seeds have been started. 

Looking around today and surveying what we have accomplished is satisfying. We are a small group of volunteers who come on the days that they can and miss the rest. We range from 62 years of age to 82. So for a bunch of silver haired old gardeners, we have come a long way, and are proud of it!

Today we harvested the thinnings from beets and kale. The beets themselves are starting to bulk up and we are looking forward to yummy beets. 

February 2012

We started out the month with some lofty goals: 

1- Open more area for next sweet potato crop.

2- Clear the area for the gourd intercropping area.

3- Get the area ready for the onion plants due to arrive in February.

4- Build the herb containers and start the herbs. 

5- Build the foundation for the shed and move the shed into place. 

6- Build the rabbitry.

7- Build the chicken pen. 

8- Continue de-grassing and de-rocking.

9- Make lots and lots of compost. 

We failed to get #6 & #7 done, but hey, we got a whole of the other stuff accomplished! The volunteers really worked hard! 

The weather has been cooperating and the volunteers are tackling the jobs, one right after the other. Wow!

1- Sweet potatoes: the next slips are potted and growing until the ground is ready. 

This next crop will be purple ones. The white, orange, and yellow tubers have been planted into potting soil so that they can grow slips. The next bed area has been de-grassed and is ready for rock removal.

2- Weedwacking: a new volunteer on board has done a marvelous job wacking down the weeds. She has opened a vast new area and whipped the gourd area into shape. Great!

3- The first crop of beets and radishes are into the raised beds. We started two different types of beets so that people can compare them for taste, growing ability, shape, etc. 

4- We are battling a woody weed in the mint family. The work is slow and difficult. But this week the volunteers managed to cut out a long strip along the irrigation pipeline. 

5- More growing container parts for the raised beds have been made and will be put together on the next get-together. Don't know yet what we'll plant into them, so it shall be a surprise. 6- We've started making the hydroponic containers for the rafts. We plan to use a variety of hydroponic systems so that people can get ideas about what would work for them in their home gardens. 

7- The irrigation system isn't functional yet, but we've set up a series of trash cans and barrels for water storage, making caring for seedlings and cuttings easier. 

By mid month we had a new volunteer come on board, I'd like to welcome Linda Nelson. She's a skilled gardener already and brings a vast knowledge on local plants. Thanks for joining us, Linda! 

1- Gourd update: The patch is ready to plant! Yup, we have the de-rocking and tilling done. Sue J. plans to put in 14-16 different varieties, so it should be an impressive sight. 

2- Another container bed got assembled and planted. So peas, kohlrabi, and carrots join the crop list.

3- The radishes look strong, beets are showing through the soil, and the hydroponic lettuce is sprouting nicely. The newest sweet potato slips are perking up, so they most likely are rooted by now. 

February 13th  Update:

We had a light rain over the weekend, just enough to freshen up the new young plants. 

Garden work update:

1- The gourd patch is now planted. 16 varieties are in. 

2- The donated sweet potato cuttings have been potted up, and the tubers of 5 new varieties have been planted in order to make slips. 

3- A good sized area behind the compost bins has been de-weeded and raked. This area is being targeted for maile and mamaki. 

4- Mexican Oregano cuttings that came from Pacific Quest have been potted. 

5- Onions: plants are on the way from the mainland. We tilled part of the area where they will be transplanted. Hope to finish that task on the next gardening day. 

6- Our first hydroponic tray is assembled and ready for the plugs. We plan to grow leaf lettuce in this first one. 

February 20th Update: 

It's getting to be fun doing the garden updates because we are actually seeing results now. 

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1- Gourds - several hills have germinated already and we are awaiting the slow pokes. 

2- Radishes - Egads, they grow so rapidly! We can actually see little radishes forming already. 

3- Everything we have seeded in the past weeks has sprouted nicely. Kohlrabi, carrots, beets, peas, etc.

4- Onions- the baby plants are in and already perking up and getting green. 400 plants altogether. They look so nice that we are tempted to go order some more. 

5- Our first maile and mamaki plants are in. 

6- Herbs- today we seeded 115 assorted herb plants. 

7- Sweet potatoes- everything we have done so far looks fine. So we started a couple more dozen cuttings so that we can continue the continuous planting schedule. 

8- Potatoes- put in our first of the potatoes. This one is a white boiler type. We will be following that up with fingerlings, purples, yellows, pinks, and every odd color combination we can locate. Should be interesting. 

9- Hydroponic lettuce- about 1/2 the seed germinated. Not so good, but what has come up is looking just fine. So we will go ahead and reseed again now. 

This coming week we plan to remove the old irrigation system. It is sun damaged beyond use and would be far too expensive to repair. How disappointing. We had counted on it functioning. But we shall make do with hoses until we can afford to install a new system. We also plan to finish mowing the tall grass and weeds. One of the volunteers is developing a garden plan on paper, and with the old irrigation system removed, it will be far easier to come up with a plan to suit the garden terrain and sun exposure. Once the grass is under control, we can really zoom into production. 

We have lots of ideas on the table we want to implement. More kinds of hydroponics. Table top gardening. More container type gardening. Vertical gardening. Some of our volunteers are really getting creative!