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Hi'iaka's Healing Herb Garden : Column Index : 2006 : April
Coming Soon...
Super Simple Guide to Spring Gardening
The heavy winter rains have finally come to an end and I'll bet many of you are eager to get outside and do some spring planting, yard cleanup, and thinking ahead to summer, just as I am. March and April are prime months for starting seeds, making compost, planting vegetables, herbs, trees, ornamentals and whatever else strikes your fancy. This month, I'll talk about where you can begin.
Even though gardening is very easy, I can't cover everything in a 1000 word column. But wait! There is a brand new book, written by yours truly, that might be helpful. Super Simple Guide to Creating Hawaiian Gardens is now available through www.authorhouse.com, www.amazon.com, and our local bookstores. It starts off by talking about buying property in Hawai`i and how to develop your land into a natural-looking tropical paradise. I also cover topics such as identifying and controlling invasive plants and insects that are common to our island environment. It's all about organic gardening methods, tried and true over the years, that I have found useful in our tropical habitat. "Controlling Weeds Without RoundUp" is one of the chapters. Another is how to build a simple raised bed garden in one day. Compost is wonderful because it's free fertilizer, so there's a chapter on how to make different kinds of compost piles, including worm composting. Also included are descriptions of what I call "wonderful weeds," which are the hardiest plants you will find in your garden. Native ferns and other plants that you might think of as weeds are explained, and my illustrator, Terry Lee, has done great line drawings that will help you identify all the plants and insects. Last but not least is a chapter on how to grow carefree native Hawaiian plants, for their beauty, nutritional value, and even medicine. I include recipes and much more so you'll be able to benefit from your harvest of many super simple plants.
I feel very blessed to have the support of many big-name people in the plant and gardening arena in Hawai`i. One of them, Angela Key Kepler, was kind enough to write the following praise for my book's back cover:
"Super Simple Guide to Creating Hawaiian Gardens is far more comprehensive than any other Hawaiian gardening guide! Barbara Fahs offers unique and perfect solutions to the question 'How?' often asked by newcomers and residents in Hawai`i. She outlines the essentials of organic gardening in Hawai`i (an important point), and includes easy-to-grow edibles and ornamentals, native, Polynesian and medicinal plants. Super Simple Guide also emphasizes land stewardship: plants not to grow, 'weeds' to encourage, and gardens without poisons. I heartily recommend this book for both healthy living and an awareness of Hawai`i's diverse environment." --Angela Kay Kepler, PhD, award-winning author of numerous books on Hawaiian plants.
But back to your spring gardening. You can utilize much of the plant rubbish that you might otherwise take to the green waste recycling center. Although I am 100% in favor of greencycling, I am also a strong proponent of using yard waste right in your own backyard. Here are some spring cleanup hints and tips, from Super Simple Guide.
Permaculture Techniques Offer Many Creative Solutions
A permaculture movement is happening in Hawai`i. If you're not familiar with the concept, it is simply "permanent agriculture," a method of creating and growing gardens that are compatible with the earth, convenient for the humans who use them, and sustainable for providing food for humans, animals and other plants. In his groundbreaking book, Introduction to Permaculture, Bill Mollison writes, "permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human environments. On one level, permaculture deals with plants, animals, buildings and infrastructure. However, permaculture is not about these elements themselves, but rather about the relationships we can create between them by the way we place them in the landscape."
Hack, Whack and Stack
Perhaps your community has a yard waste recycling program that allows you to dispose of tree branches, grass clippings, bags of leaves and any other plant material you might collect while pruning and cleaning up your property. If it does, I encourage you to use such services. But why go to the extra trouble of hauling your yard waste to a special place when the plants in your very own garden can benefit from it?
Permaculture pioneer Ano Tarletz, of GaiaYoga Gardens in Puna, coined the term "hack, whack and stack." This permaculture technique is easier than traditional composting, provides nutrients for your valued plants and gives them a rich food source from other plants that you need to control. It's a simple type of passive composting. All you need to do is to prune or "coppice" plants and trees that you don't want getting too tall. To do this, you saw or "hack" off the top several feet of a plant like wiliwili. Then "whack" the pieces into one- to two-foot pieces and "stack" them at the base of the tree or plant you want to nurture. Wiliwili is great for this: many people grow it as a natural fence or privacy barricade. It grows quickly, it's tall and straight, and it even gets attractive flowers in season. It has many valuable nutrients like nitrogen, so that means you can use it to help feed other plants. (P.S. You can use plant parts that have been damaged by the gall wasp.)
When I first saw this practice being done, I thought it looked a little messy, and it can, especially if you're doing it in your home garden. If you've seen fronds stacked at the base of coconut palms, you'll understand what the hack, whack and stack method can look like. To tame the appearance a little, you can chop the pieces into smaller parts and perhaps cover them with lawn clippings, sawdust or leaves that you have raked up. It will eventually break down and create nice, rich humus around the base of the plant that you want to nourish. And it will look tidy when the in-laws visit.
Super Simple Guide to Spring Gardening
The heavy winter rains have finally come to an end and I'll bet many of you are eager to get outside and do some spring planting, yard cleanup, and thinking ahead to summer, just as I am. March and April are prime months for starting seeds, making compost, planting vegetables, herbs, trees, ornamentals and whatever else strikes your fancy. This month, I'll talk about where you can begin.
Even though gardening is very easy, I can't cover everything in a 1000 word column. But wait! There is a brand new book, written by yours truly, that might be helpful. Super Simple Guide to Creating Hawaiian Gardens is now available through www.authorhouse.com, www.amazon.com, and our local bookstores. It starts off by talking about buying property in Hawai`i and how to develop your land into a natural-looking tropical paradise. I also cover topics such as identifying and controlling invasive plants and insects that are common to our island environment. It's all about organic gardening methods, tried and true over the years, that I have found useful in our tropical habitat. "Controlling Weeds Without RoundUp" is one of the chapters. Another is how to build a simple raised bed garden in one day. Compost is wonderful because it's free fertilizer, so there's a chapter on how to make different kinds of compost piles, including worm composting. Also included are descriptions of what I call "wonderful weeds," which are the hardiest plants you will find in your garden. Native ferns and other plants that you might think of as weeds are explained, and my illustrator, Terry Lee, has done great line drawings that will help you identify all the plants and insects. Last but not least is a chapter on how to grow carefree native Hawaiian plants, for their beauty, nutritional value, and even medicine. I include recipes and much more so you'll be able to benefit from your harvest of many super simple plants.
I feel very blessed to have the support of many big-name people in the plant and gardening arena in Hawai`i. One of them, Angela Key Kepler, was kind enough to write the following praise for my book's back cover:
"Super Simple Guide to Creating Hawaiian Gardens is far more comprehensive than any other Hawaiian gardening guide! Barbara Fahs offers unique and perfect solutions to the question 'How?' often asked by newcomers and residents in Hawai`i. She outlines the essentials of organic gardening in Hawai`i (an important point), and includes easy-to-grow edibles and ornamentals, native, Polynesian and medicinal plants. Super Simple Guide also emphasizes land stewardship: plants not to grow, 'weeds' to encourage, and gardens without poisons. I heartily recommend this book for both healthy living and an awareness of Hawai`i's diverse environment." --Angela Kay Kepler, PhD, award-winning author of numerous books on Hawaiian plants.
But back to your spring gardening. You can utilize much of the plant rubbish that you might otherwise take to the green waste recycling center. Although I am 100% in favor of greencycling, I am also a strong proponent of using yard waste right in your own backyard. Here are some spring cleanup hints and tips, from Super Simple Guide.
Permaculture Techniques Offer Many Creative Solutions
A permaculture movement is happening in Hawai`i. If you're not familiar with the concept, it is simply "permanent agriculture," a method of creating and growing gardens that are compatible with the earth, convenient for the humans who use them, and sustainable for providing food for humans, animals and other plants. In his groundbreaking book, Introduction to Permaculture, Bill Mollison writes, "permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human environments. On one level, permaculture deals with plants, animals, buildings and infrastructure. However, permaculture is not about these elements themselves, but rather about the relationships we can create between them by the way we place them in the landscape."
Hack, Whack and Stack
Perhaps your community has a yard waste recycling program that allows you to dispose of tree branches, grass clippings, bags of leaves and any other plant material you might collect while pruning and cleaning up your property. If it does, I encourage you to use such services. But why go to the extra trouble of hauling your yard waste to a special place when the plants in your very own garden can benefit from it?
Permaculture pioneer Ano Tarletz, of GaiaYoga Gardens in Puna, coined the term "hack, whack and stack." This permaculture technique is easier than traditional composting, provides nutrients for your valued plants and gives them a rich food source from other plants that you need to control. It's a simple type of passive composting. All you need to do is to prune or "coppice" plants and trees that you don't want getting too tall. To do this, you saw or "hack" off the top several feet of a plant like wiliwili. Then "whack" the pieces into one- to two-foot pieces and "stack" them at the base of the tree or plant you want to nurture. Wiliwili is great for this: many people grow it as a natural fence or privacy barricade. It grows quickly, it's tall and straight, and it even gets attractive flowers in season. It has many valuable nutrients like nitrogen, so that means you can use it to help feed other plants. (P.S. You can use plant parts that have been damaged by the gall wasp.)
When I first saw this practice being done, I thought it looked a little messy, and it can, especially if you're doing it in your home garden. If you've seen fronds stacked at the base of coconut palms, you'll understand what the hack, whack and stack method can look like. To tame the appearance a little, you can chop the pieces into smaller parts and perhaps cover them with lawn clippings, sawdust or leaves that you have raked up. It will eventually break down and create nice, rich humus around the base of the plant that you want to nourish. And it will look tidy when the in-laws visit.
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