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Hi‘iaka's Healing Herb Garden Quarterly Newsletter, Spring 2010
Garden Party March 20 a Hit
Many old friends, and a few new ones, stopped by to celebrate the 10th birthday of Hi‘iaka’s Healing Herb Garden on March 20. It really meant a lot to me to see the appreciation everyone had for the garden. We had pupus, fresh herb tea from the garden, and I led two tours during the noon to 5 pm festivities. Especially special to me was having my old friend Kris Houser, from Santa Cruz, visit during the time that the party took place. She was here the day I had the property bulldozed on March 22, 2000, so it felt like a full circle having her here once again. Other special guests included Tim and Heather Blakley, who live right here in Hawaiian Paradise Park. Tim works for Frontier Natural Products Co-op and is a renowned herbalist and aromatherapist in his own right, and co-author of the book Medicinal Herbs in the Garden, Field and Marketplace. Many mahalos go out to everyone who attended and those who purchased plants, copies of my book and herbal products.
Tim (left), Heather and Kris, with other guests
But Before the Party…
I couldn’t have held the party without the super help that I received from two sets of Willing Workers on Organic Farms during the six weeks before the event. There was a lot of weeding and sprucing up to do, and in the approximately 150 hours that my volunteers weeded, raked, hoed and made huge piles of weeds and pruned plant parts, the garden was returned to its former glory. Many thanks go out to Seth and Hannah and Kyle and Laura, who stayed in my gazebo for two weeks each.
Finally! Coconuts!
After over 11 years of living here, some of my older coconut palms are beginning to produce the succulent fruit that everyone loves. The largest tree at the top of the property must have been planted by the original owner/builder, and it has several nuts that are growing larger every week. I can’t wait to sample my own fresh coconuts when they get ripe. One of the trees I planted 11 years ago looks like it is starting to form flowers stalks as well, so we shall see it if produces. Now I have to remember not to walk underneath them — you can get a nasty concussion if a large coconut hits you on the head!
Wow, it looks so tropical!
April Workshop
I was pleased to welcome Gwen Vargo, from Maui, for a three-day workshop here at the garden on April 8 through 10th. We made a lot of products from the garden and had lots of fun, tasty lunches and a trip up to the volcano to make an offering to Pele and Hi‘iaka. It was good for me to refresh my memory about the plants and to reconnect with the ‘aina (land) and share my love of nature. Mahalo, Gwen! I’m sure we will remain connected.
Gwen and I were lucky to get so close to the eruption
at Halemauma‘u crater, at Volcanoes National Park
Gonna Be a Hot Mango Summer
Our two-month long winter drought was tough on the water supply, and even the weeds died in many places. The plants in the garden are true survivors at this point—they must be able to tolerate prolonged droughts as well as those month-long rainstorms we sometimes have. One of the bonuses of a winter drought is that the mango tress love it… all three of my trees are chock-full of flowers and small, forming fruit. As long as we don’t get a torrential Monsoon that knocks the young fruit to the ground, we’ll be swimming in mangos come July and August. I just never can get enough of this delicious fruit.
Mucho Basil and White Sage
I started lemon basil, Thai basil and Genova sweet basil to sell at the garden party and have tons left. The Thai basil does especially well here, and the lemon basil has naturalized throughout the garden in the past. But suddenly, it stopped doing that, so thanks to Rolfe and Janet Hagen of “The Thyme Garden” in Oregon, I traded some noni seeds from my tree for packets of lemon basil and white sage. White sage (Salvia apiana) is a California native I have long loved, but it’s hard to grow here. My young plants are looking very good so far and I plan to grow them in one of the beds in my small greenhouse, where I can control the amount of water they receive. Being a California native, you can guess that they don’t like their environment to be as wet as it sometimes gets here.
Thai basil White sage Baby Genova basil
A Wonderful Weed
I truly love the native hibiscus in Hawai‘i and grow several endangered species of this lovely flowering plant. Other equally lovely flowering plants are in the same plant family as the hibiscus (Malvaceae, which includes mallows and hollyhocks), and one of them is the ‘ilima, or Sida fallax. I have tried unsuccessfully to grow this delicate little native Hawaiian plant over the years, and have been very disappointed that none of the plants I introduced survived. But, by the grace of the good Goddess, I believe I have one growing as a weed in my nursery area. It hasn’t bloomed yet, but when it first popped up, I suspected that it might be an ‘ilima, so I protected it by placing two large potted plants on either side of it to keep it from harm’s way — either the dog or the weed whacker could take it out with one wag of the tail or one swipe of the blades. I am eager to see if it produces yellow or orange flowers, but the mystery of where the heck did it come from will probably never be answered.
‘Ilimas on Oahu My (hopeful) ‘ilima
Still Writing for GardenGuides
Demand Studios, the company that manages several Web sites including eHow.com, recently acquired GardenGuides.com, to whom I began contributing content over 10 years ago. Now I am writing only for GardenGuides and not for eHow, and it’s a lot of fun. Demand Studios has strict copy editors, who proofread all articles before they are published on the site. They can be a pain sometimes, but in general I appreciate the fact that they truly care about what they put up on the Internet, because that means it’s verifiable, well written, and well researched. Check out my articles under my pen name, “HawaiiHerbLady,” and be sure to visit my blog at http://my.gardenguides.com/members/HawaiiHerbLady/blog. I’ll be updating it soon to report on the success I am having growing Goji berries, one of the so-called “miracle” fruits for promoting good health.
Jackson Had an Operation
My poor boy dog had suffered from these heinous double dew
claws on his hind legs all his life. Recently, one of them grew into his flesh,
causing great pain and irritation, so I decided to have them amputated on April
13. Today, the 18th, he’s frisky as ever and can’t wait to play with
his neighbor, Rocky. Just look at those awful things, which are no more… he’ll
get the stitches out later this coming week. Love you, Jackson!
These claws are no more
Pretty Flowers and Tasty Beans
I just couldn’t resist including pictures of some yellow hibiscus (not our native variety, the ma‘o hau hele, but a nice hybrid I managed to bring back from the dead), the red zinger hibiscus and the wing beans that I am successfully growing in a planter box in my nursery. These beans are tender and good tasting, but are tricky to grow in the ground, much to my disappointment in the past, so I decided to try some new seeds in a container. It’s working nicely and I plan to have a big handful of them with dinner tonight.
Yellow hibiscus Red zinger hibiscus Wing bean
