Container Gardens and Other Secrets of a Seasoned Planter

One crafty solution to the challenges of gardening in the rocky substrate of Hawai'i Island is to use containers. Ocean View resident Velvet Replogle has had success in her organic garden, by doing just this. At an elevation of 4,300 ft, Velvet grows a variety of fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in large plastic containers. The country girl from British Columbia and long time Hawai`i resident sat down with HHFN to share tricks of the trade she’s learned from 35 years of gardening.

Sixteen years ago Velvet and her husband John began planting fruit trees on their Ocean View acre. Situated in a kipuka, the site is dense with native vegetation. “I’ve been vegetable gardening on our property for 8 years, and I now use containers because the 'ohi'a roots invade the beds.

I still use beds, but I mostly garden in huge tubs that can hold about 30-40 gallons of soil,” said Velvet. The tubs, which she inherited from Kahuku Ranch, previously held molasses for cattle. A trip to Velvet’s garden revealed an abundance of tomatoes, cabbage, kale, potatoes, fennel, dill, yakon, eggplant, bell peppers, edible flowers, perpetual spinach, lettuce, goji berries, pole and bush beans, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, and celery—all thriving in her containers.  In Velvet’s regular beds, blueberries, mulberries, goji berries, red plums, granny smith apples, pettingill apples, oranges, lemons, limes, pink grapefruit, and figs are also thriving. She pointed out that she frequently experiments to see which plants will grow better in the containers.

Velvet attributes her success to lots of trial and error and the nutritious soil she builds from cinder soil, compost, and worm castings. “Make as much compost as you can and use worm castings,” she urged.  She has also experimented with growing vegetables in the compost from the county waste transfer station with good results. To build soil, Velvet first screens cinder and compost. She built her own screens with wooden frames and hardware wire with varying grid sizes. “I put the screen on my wheel barrow and do my sorting there. When screening compost I use a medium mesh. If I’m doing seedlings I use the small mesh,” she explained. Then she puts the cinder into a cement mixer. “As it spins the big rocks come to the front and I scoop them out. I can use those for drainage and pathways. Then I add composted steer or chicken manure, mac nut husks, and lime,” she described. “And finally I add Triple-6 organic fertilizer. That’s the mixture that I’ve been growing everything in. I don’t use any chemical fertilizers or sprays. I also mulch heavily with straw, which has saved me a lot of watering.” All Ocean View residents are on a water catchment system.

Like most organic growers, Velvet is a composting advocate. “For my closed compost, I use large garbage cans with lids and drilled holes. I also use a plunger to aerate the compost, which makes it decompose twice as fast. After adding kitchen scraps, I always add chopped leaves,” she remarked. “I just keep adding compost to my garden as I’m replanting. I try everything. Next I’m going to try using cotton seed meal and green sand, as someone I talked to who had taken soil samples said we were deficient in potassium,” said Velvet. In a green waste pile, Velvet adds yard waste and lets “volunteers” like pumpkins get their start. “I encourage volunteers and I save seeds.” For the past six months, Velvet has applied a worm casting tea to her plants. “I’ve been spraying the tea on my plants twice a week. I make it aerobically using an aquarium pump in a five gallon bucket of water. Take 2 cups of worm castings, suspend it in a sock, and add 2 tablespoons of molasses (unsulfured so as not to kill the microbes), cane syrup, maple syrup, or fruit juice, and aerate it for 24 hours. Then you should use it within two hours or the microbes start dying. The aeration makes the microorganisms more readily available to the plant.” Velvet recommends the book “Teaming with Microbes” by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis, which talks about feeding your soil fungi and bacteria.

To make worm bins, Velvet used medium Tupperware totes (not too tall) drilled with pinholes in the side. She then added shredded newspaper and the red vermicompost worms. The bins are sealed and stored under her porch, where it is dark and cool. “I feed the worms chopped vegetables, rice, coffee grounds and egg shells. I aerate the bins by stirring and add more paper a couple times a week, so the bedding doesn’t get too wet. I have three bins now because I keep getting more and more worms.”

Lately, Velvet’s gardening challenges have been insects and climatic conditions. To treat infestations, Velvet hand picks bugs or applies a neem and soap solution or safer soap spray to the leaves of plants that have pests. She said the Island’s drought has forced her to buy water, which is expensive. In addition, the vog from Kilauea has killed some of her plants. “Vog is a huge challenge. It killed my raspberries and wiped out one of my lettuce crops. Other than rinsing the plants a rain there isn’t much you can do.” Velvet said her next step is to finish her green house where she plans to grow peppers, melons, tomatoes, and eggplant. “They need more heat and it gets down to the 50s at night at this elevation,” she explained.

“I remember gardening as a little kid. We would start gardens wherever we lived. I grew my first real garden when I was 25 and I got cankers from eating so many tomatoes,” she reminisced. ”I got a bumper crop that year and have been gardening ever since. I’ve always had at least a salad garden.” Velvet now grows 60% of her own vegetables and is gradually increasing that percentage.

Not many families living at 4,300 ft in almost pure lava can demonstrate the abundance of fruit and vegetables that Velvet has been able to grow. Her wish is that everyone can learn the skills that she has learned. Here’s her advice to other gardeners: “Try everything. It’s all hit or miss. That’s how my gardening is. You never know when you might be able to grow something exciting. And share your plants.”

 

India Young is a writer, photgrapher and cartographer who reports for HHFN about local food innovations and events in Ka'u.