TheGardenTalks: Land of the giant plants
A year travels by quickly and it has been almost one year to the day marking my first visit to the Kilauea Community Garden. I was led here by curiosity–a desire to learn more about this new revolution in community gardening taking place on the island of Kaua‘i. At the heart of it is sustainability and a strong commitment to growing more local food using environmentally conscious methods and techniques. This garden, under the careful hands of the community, is yielding plants that are enormous specimens of their type, whether they are filled with fruit, flowers or seeds.
We just couldn’t get enough of the Kilauea Community Garden. When you arrive you simply want to be still for a moment and take it in. There is something magical about being at the base of the Namahana mountains in an acre of food and flowers filled with a vitality that takes your breath away. The garden is located at Wai Koa Plantation, situated in the ahupuaa of Kalihiwai at about 350 feet elevation. Lots of community members and organizations have joined together to make this garden happen and help it grow: Mālama Kauai, Regenerations Botanical Garden, Ray Maki of Permaculture Kaua‘i, and Common Ground, to name but a few. The garden practices are based on permaculture and a mix of other sustainable methods. The day-to-day efforts of the gardeners who spend time tending their plots and helping their neighbors really makes this work.
Paul Massey of Regenerations was our guide for the afternoon. His passion is seeds – seed saving, seed sharing and growing seeds suited for Kaua‘i’s unique microclimates. He and his partner Jill Richardson, along with some great community volunteers, have greatly expanded their portion of the Community Garden and the seed exchange program on Kaua‘i. In fact last Sunday over 200 farmers, gardeners, musicians and families joined in for the 8th Kaua‘i Seed Exchange, hosted for the first time at the Kilauea Community Garden/Regenerations Seed Garden.
Ethiopian Kale (Brassica carinata) is top on the list as one of Paul’s favorite plants. Why? Well first of all it can handle the subtropical climate and our odd summer weather without missing a beat. Many plants have really suffered this summer, we had so much rain followed by hot dry days with nary a drop. This weather pattern seemed to encourage lots of pests and disease in certain veggies. Second, Ethiopian Kale is filled with edible foliage all year long. Finally, this sturdy plant reseeds itself. So you don’t even have to do the work of saving and collecting the seeds simply let it go to flower when the time is right and new little seedlings will sprout up in your soil. It’s tasty (though not as tender as some of the other more commercial kales) and readily available as a fast healthy food you can harvest right from your own doorstep.
A few other favorites are growing in the wonderful lath house recently constructed at the community garden. As you walk in you can’t help but notice the uhi, or Hawaiian yam (Dioscorea alata). This climbing vine has a vigor that is really unsurpassed. The heart shaped leaves fill the trellis from floor to ceiling creating a vertical wall of green. To harvest the roots you want to grow it for at least four months. In a year’s time the plant goes through a full cycle of growth, flowering, production of aerial tubers, and finally the above ground portion of the plant dies back while the underground tuber has reached its maximum potential – weighing up to 50 pounds or greater! This plant deserves more attention as a major component of anyone’s food security garden.
The cucumber-like fruits hanging near the top of the trellis are actually part of another vining plant, the luffa. What a beauty. Now, the luffa is very appealing from a sustainability perspective. When we talk about being more sustainable we often talk about food and energy. If you really think about it there are so many products that we import and use on a daily basis, other than food. Sponges are one of them. The versatile luffa has been a natural shower sponge for decades, it can also be used as a pot scrubber and general household cleaning rag. The luffa vine looks right at home alongside the uhi. In addition to them, two other vines grace the walls: chayote squash and purple winged bean.
Regenerations is working to grow vegetables for seed stock that suit our palate and our unique growing conditions. To learn more about how you can save seed join Regenerations, The Kohala Center and University of Hawai‘i at the first Hawai‘i Seed Basics Workshop here on Kaua‘i on November 6th and 7th. You’ll be introduced to the exciting world of seed saving all the way from the botany of seeds through field trials and storage. The full agenda and directions, registration, and scholarship forms are available at The Kohala Center or by contacting Jill Richardson at Regenerations. Pre-registration and pre-payment are required to have lunch on both days and to receive the Seed Manual. The Kohala Center is also sponsoring a series of public seed workshops that will be hosted throughout the five main Hawaiian Islands over the next two years.
Feeding our Neighbors
Earlier this year we visited the Po‘oku Garden at Church of the Pacific and were filled with amazement at the incredible offering of food that fills the food pantry on Wednesdays. This food comes from food banks, the Church of the Pacific Garden and from local farmers and gardeners. At the Kilauea Community Garden several community-minded individuals grow food and contribute weekly to the North Shore Pantry. Paul, in his own plot, has adopted the Plant a Row For the Hungry program as well, tilling a full row to fill with food to give away to our neighbors.
The Regenerations Seed Garden welcomes volunteer participation weekly on Wednesdays from 9am-6pm and Saturdays from 10am-7pm. The garden is part of the Kilauea Community Garden, located .6 miles up Kahiliholo Road in Kalihiwai. A map of the location is available here. For more information please call (808) 652-4118 or visit www.ribg.org.
TheGardenTalks is brought to you by Colleen Carroll, Director and C.E.O. of NatureTalks. Colleen lives on Kaua’i and gives inspirational presentations on gardening. The most popular presentation is The Power of Plants to Transform Community.To see more of NatureTalks stories on gardens and gardeners, see the book, It’s About More than Trees. Colleen created NatureTalks to connect people with nature. This report is adapted with kind permission from Colleen’s website NatureTalks.