What are Hawaii folks planting and harvesting?

You might recall that the company did not want to ship asparagus crowns to Hawaii, insisting that they would not do well here.  Well, they are gorgeous.  We have a lot to learn however.  Gonna dump more horseshit on the beds and give them more oomph.  We have been gathering emirite beans, lettuces and some beautiful Napa carrots.  I'll go ahead and see if I can also post this to the Hawaii section.  Must be someone out here still gardening.

Just dropped in to say Hi! to a colleague Regional Host.

I take it you have not yet master the art of posting pictures yet so that we can see your beans lettuce and carrots. I have a lot of practicing to do before I can post pictures without thinking about it, but I am sure it will come in time.

On which island  do you you live? 

I live on the beautiful island of Kauai, called the Garden Island, wouldn't you know.  Unfortunately not nearly enough folks here garden.  A crying shame, partly because we are so dependent on the barge and planes bringing in 95% of our food.

We are endeavoring in a way to be able to survive "if the boat don't come".  Lots to learn, which is exciting.

I notice Kelejan that we are the same age!!  Good for us.  Instead of saying I'm 79 I tout that I am in my 80th year.  Hee, hee.  

My grandson is so busy trying to keep up with all the challenges on our property that I have delayed asking for help with the photos.

I think there is a post somewhere about how to do it.  My basic problem is that my memory these days doesn't let me track more than one step at a time.  I might make a word doc of the steps..  Maybe that will help.

kauairosina wrote:I think there is a post somewhere about how to do it.  My basic problem is that my memory these days doesn't let me track more than one step at a time.  I might make a word doc of the steps..  Maybe that will help.

A word doc is a great Idea! What Windows do you have?

I have Word 7.  At least that's the version my computer is on.

sanderson wrote:

kauairosina wrote:I think there is a post somewhere about how to do it.  My basic problem is that my memory these days doesn't let me track more than one step at a time.  I might make a word doc of the steps..  Maybe that will help.

A word doc is a great Idea!  What Windows do you have?

Kauairosina, I have bumped the post, How to Post a Picture.

Let's see how this works.

75F?  We here in British Columbia Interior are at about the freezing mark.
Envy . (That is the nearest I can get to a green envy.)


So is that the picture you posted, rosina?

kauairosina wrote:I live on the beautiful island of Kauai, called the Garden Island, wouldn't you know.  Unfortunately not nearly enough folks here garden.  A crying shame, partly because we are so dependent on the barge and planes bringing in 95% of our food.

We are endeavoring in a way to be able to survive "if the boat don't come".  Lots to learn, which is exciting.

I notice Kelejan that we are the same age!!  Good for us.  Instead of saying I'm 79 I tout that I am in my 80th year.  Hee, hee.  

My grandson is so busy trying to keep up with all the challenges on our property that I have delayed asking for help with the photos.

I think there is a post somewhere about how to do it.  My basic problem is that my memory these days doesn't let me track more than one step at a time.  I might make a word doc of the steps..  Maybe that will help.

I also have to take small steps now when I try to learn.  My excuse is that my head is already full so it is a bit of a squeeze.  I am only just coming to terms with the fact that I will be 80 very soon. Generally I have never given my age as I hate being put in a box but now I cannot get away from it as I would have to take a driving test if I wanted to drive and once it gets into the local community you can't hide from it.  I now get friends asking me if I am OK when I say that I shovel my driveway of snow and are there any youngsters around who can help me. I can still do four hours labor in the garden providing I go at my own pace and take time to admire the view, or talk to passers-by or take a tea/coffee break.

of being in my 80th year and delighted to make new friends around the world.  

Most of immediate associates (my Ohana) are much younger, the youngest being 27, the closest to me 72.  A few around the 60 to 65 mark.  Keeps me hopping even when I say I'm not able.  'Oh yes you are" they say and by golly there I go, taking longer strides than I would otherwise with the use of walking sticks.  

We are very, very fortunate to have good health at this age and gardening and new friends keep us going.

Agree with what you say. We are lucky to have good health, so much better than many of my friends of similar age.

Most of my life I have had older friends and generally been one of the youngest of most groups.  Now I try to make friends with younger people otherwise life might get lonely being at the top of the pile.

This gardening has really helped my life happiness as gardeners are such a loving group, also the Internet, the good things about it, connecting with the world and people, even when it is unlikely you would ever meet them. 

To keep on Topic:

Hawaiins need to garden a lot more and do their best to be self-sufficienct, just like most peoples of the world need to do instead of relying on Big-Ag to fly in stuff.

My late sister-in-law used to visit Hawaii every year. She and her husband looked forward to it; they were both teachers so had the time to make it worthwhile.  I believed they would have retired there if they had reached that age.

I have two really smart people trying.   We will do it someday.  Gallery says it is full.   Once we figure it out you will cry "uncle", I promise.

There is thread for practicing posting pictures, and if you look on the left   it is there.  Apparently the Gallery is not available any more.

we went to that thread but no luck.  Probably operator(s) errors.  We'll keep after it.

The Gallery may be full, but you can post photos right here. I haven't visited the Gallery for over a year. So, if you want folks to see something, post it in your Reply

we will be posting pictures  Did try reply.  We will keep going for it.  thanks for your reply.

Beautiful purple Jersey Knights that aren't supposed to grow here.  I'm taking pictures.  You might remember that the gal who sent them said she was keeping my emails in case I sued her for non production.  She was the only one who would even send the crowns to Hawaii.  

We have also been harvesting lots of lettuce.  Not keeping up with the recording .  Must get back to that.

Hi Rosina,
I live in Anahola, am 65yrs, and my wife and I just decided to give up the toil of going down to the back acreage of our farm lot for gardening and are building 2 raised beds, SFG style in our front yard!
Right off the front deck and there you are, in our fenced yard, its such a luxury. Down on the property we had a large garden plot, fenced but just too big and there are so many more elements to contend with we had to give it up.
Momi my wife started with a 4x8 box and now I found SFG, I have a 3x8 box to fill today. I have all the ingredients except the weed barrier. 
Do you think I need it? We didn't think of that.
She isn't using grids and didn't have the SFG recipe but its pretty close.
I am going to adhere to SFG as much as I can and we'll see the difference.
Aloha

So, to continue, Momi used some lettuce starts from the Farmers Market, and they are doing great. I will be using seeds.
She's done gardening a lot more than I so I'll ask her what seeds what veggies to grow.
So do you have any suggestions for Kauai environment as to what seeds are best performers here?
 
She also has Cilantro, Carrots, Beets, and a few more... can't remember, but she's got about 2 week headstart.
I will try to get my box up and ready by the weekend.
Oh yeah, we love herbs, and I think she has some mint, basil...

So great to have you on the SFG forum.  I have been the lone Hawaii SFG for a while and my friends from the other parts of the world suggested I just keep posting. 

I have learned so much from this site.  Really friendly, helpful folks who are not disturbed that we can grow and harvest so much year round.

To answer your question.   I do think you would be sorry if you don't put a weed barrier down.  You  don't want weeds coming up through that expensive mix where they would really thrive.  

If you got the starts from the Farmer's market they are probably Robin's which are the very best. 

I have been having trouble growing basil because it gets some nasty stuff on it (don't know the name).  It is my favorite herb dog gone it.

Our kale is out of this world in production.  We found we really prefer the Russian to the curly kale as it is more tender.  We have learned to make salads with raw kale,massaging lemon juice in the tender leaves and adding stuff like feta cheese, tomatoes, shredded or cut up carrots.  You get the picture. Our only problem is that we will have too much and will try to find folks who want it.  It is a good substitute for spinach, which we don't have a lot of success with.

I presume you have gotten your hands on Mel's latest book.  You can get it from the library.  Very different from the original, which just used compost and dirt.

As you probably noticed, we have had success with asparagus, lettuce of all kinds,collards, which we grow for the chickens for sturdy eggshells, swiss chard, beans and many herbs (except basil). It is possible that you can grow it in your micro climate.

We have automatic irrigation which especially helps when we are not home.

So get the book if you have not already done so and we sure will be in touch.

Aloha,
Kauairosina

Ukeman and Momi.    So glad to see you on the Hawaii thread as I know that Rosina has been an awful lonely lady there in Hawaii.

I am the Canadian Host, so I know what it is like, even though Canada is slightly larger than your islands, the cold, the snow and the short winter hours are inclined to keep us quiet until spring and I seem to be talking to myself,  but everyone kindly assures me that they are listening.

So please, keep posting, send pictures, and be assured that many lovely and helpful people will help Rosina with any questions you many have.

Many mahalos Kelejan for the good word.

By the way Uke and Momi I am in Lawai.  Weather is probably a little wetter here, usually, although we are experiencing a drought at this time.  All the fields are brown and I am grateful for county water and automatic irrigation.

I did use Peat/Compost/Vermiculite 3/3/3 mixed, but eyeballed it for my 3x8 box. I only bought 1x 3.5 cu.ft. bag of vermiculite though and it was a bit shy of the full 33%.
I reckon it will be fine.
Momi said not to worry about the weed barrier (she wouldn't even use cardboard for weed barrier because of being a "purist"  and her box hasn't had a weed in it in a few weeks so far. We can just pluck them out too.

i will check out the book Rosina... 
and yes, Robin supplied the starts.  I can't wait to get started this weekend, but still need to set the grid markers which should be easy to do. 

For the future you might consider gro stone, purchased at Garden Island Hydro.  It is recycled glass.  We like it a lot.  The vermiculite we could get was junk.  Funny how these SFG beds always beg for more beds.  They are so much fun and so lovely.

We use narrow bamboo for grids, lately slicing it and weaving it.  My hanai grandson's idea.  

Glad you are not too affected by the salt air in Anahola and you can grow stuff.