Living a sustainable life should be more than one of the so-called political correct catch-phrases for anyone, anywhere; but when it comes to living in Hawaii it should be a way of life.
You hear the words sustainability, sustainable gardening, edible gardens, edible landscapes, "Victory Gardens", "Plant a Row to fight Hunger" and other catchy names for what is basically planting an edible garden in your own yards.
Some people are starting to see where big business farming is taking our country and where it is becoming a big concern due to the recent scares in tainted produce, meats and canned goods.
These same people are ripping up their labor-intensive grass lawns and planting edibles even in their front yards. After all, if you have to work so hard to have a pretty lawn that just sits there, isn't it smarter to work as hard to be able to reap an edible harvest in the same space?
If you take the time and care to think about 'landscaping' with your herbs and other edibles, your yard can look as pretty as if it was planted in masses of flowering bushes or trees. Just make sure your flowering bushes are all growing edibles and your trees bear nuts or fruit.
If you don't have much room to plant a big garden in your yard or you live in an apartment or condo, there is always a little balcony or small place to grow a few potted herbs, peppers or tomatoes... or you can always support your community by buying from local farmers and nearby farmer's markets.
We live on islands in the middle of the ocean. We are far, far away from most market sources. In case of national or global emergencies we need to rely on our own resources. Where else better than on our own bountiful island?
Prices of food have escalated quite a bit lately. It used to be you could buy a butternut squash for a bit over $1 a pound...recently we noticed they were priced at $2.39 a pound. When you purchase a 3 pound squash for $7.17, I would say that is a bit much, no matter how much we like them...and milk is now being called White Gold!
In the past, I have written several articles for this publication (*) on growing food in your garden or supporting your local farms. If you keep past issues of The Hamakua Times, you can go back to reread "Victory Gardens" (April 02); "Lucky Live Hawaii" (April 05); "Richard Ha - Tomato Farmer" (May 05); "the Bounty of Hawaii" (June 05) and "Hawaii...The Garden of the Pacific" (March 06) among others.
If you have read some of my articles in other publications, you know by now that I am a firm believer in "Eating Local" and helping sustain the local farmers.
Last September, my son Anthony and I started working on a little garden in the yard on the side of the house. We live on a property that doesn't have many level areas, and that was the 'levelest' place for one. This summer we added more to the garden after it lay unattended for a couple of months when I was visiting the mainland. It is now fully restored, producing and we are already planning on expanding it.
We are growing many herbs: sweet Italian basil, lemon basil, Thai basil, American blue basil, plain leaf and ruffled leaf purple basils and a basil we can't identify; Italian parsley, ruffled leaf parsley and Japanese Mitsuba parsley; 2 types of dill; spearmint, lemon mint, bay leaf, rosemaries, sage and pineapple sage; Mexican tarragon, 2 types thyme, chives and garlic chives; lemon grass, mustard greens and mizuna greens; creeping marjoram, stick oregano and Cuban or Caribbean oregano.
We have started gowing a variety of peppers, some sweet and some hot. Three varieties of tomatoes; 4 varieties of eggplants; three varieties of spinach: Malabar, Okinawan and Dawn Dewa; long beans and a few edible flowers for salads and garnishing.
There are papaya trees, apple bananas, dwarf Brazilian banana, Cuban Red banana, four varieties of avocadoes, coconuts, Surinam cherries, passion fruit vines, pineapples and a source for fresh bamboo shoots. There are also several citrus planted throughout the property and a jaboticaba that needs to be moved.
There are many books to be found that can help you start your own small garden or even for container gardening. Your garden will go a long way toward helping you supplement whatever you might have to buy at the grocery stores. Start small.
The concept of 'square food gardening' teaches you how much you can grow in just one little 4 foot square space when you combine taller plants in the center and placing graduating sized plants towards the edges, ending with your mounding herbs along the borders.
Don't forget the foods that grow wild and can be foraged, such as berries, guavas, bread fruit, fiddlehead ferns and even bamboo shoots, edible seaweeds for salads, kukui nuts to make inamona paste for seasoning and there is always sea salt.
Avocadoes, eggplants, cherry tomatoes and peppers from our edible garden!
You can read a bit more about our gardening by visiting my blog site Sonia Tastes Hawaii - if you look on the right hand side, you can click on "How Does My Garden Grow" or even on "Fruits From the Garden" and several pages will open up about the garden and some recipes using the harvest from our garden and yard'
(*) the Edible Garden by Sonia R. Martinez - for The Hamakua Times of Honoka'a, Hawai'i - August 2007 issue.
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Comments: 55
Good piece.
All your pictures were wonderful and your article was superb!
It sounds like your grownig season is year round, unlike the few months we get north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Flit, no matter how small a garden, every bit helps. I'm sure you can grow many things we can't!
Donna, we have that book - "Food not Lawns" by H. C. Flores. We also are finding "Perennial Vegetables" by Eric Toensmeier to be quite helpful.
Kevin, thank you. I feel quite strongly about this subject and have for quite sometime.
Heather, thanks.....isn't there a little area you can fence in from the critters......>
Joan, yes it is! I love going out each morning to see what might be ready to pick....and besides, it all looks so pretty!
Sarina, our garden itself is actually not so big....we just have a lot growing there. The property is about 3 acres, but most of it is gulches, and very hard to plant anything on the slopes....but it is amazing how much is already planted, wherever there is suitable space.
Lou, thank you! Yes, we do have some whopper avos. We have several varieties growing and all are different sizes and textures. California has done a great job of brain-washing the country that Haas are the only good avos, but there are actually many, many more good varieties growing in the world....!
Dorine, I know you're part of my choir! You even grow a few herbs and veggies on your little balcony!!! .....and yes, we have a year'round growing season for many things, although some fruits are seasonal.
Theresa, thanks. It is a lot of fun for me......besides being good to get out and exercise for at least an hour here and there while weeding or harvesting...
Mo, thank you! Yes, these humongous avoes. We ate our first one yesterday, gave one away and have e more ready today which I probably will mash for guac. The trees are loaded this year, so we will be giving many away.
Olivera, thank you so much....if you manage your space well, you will be surprised how much you can plant in an 8x4 bed! Good luck!
Linda, thank you so much for reading and commenting!
Debbie!!!! You're home from the hospital? Hope you're doing well! Yes, I wish we could rip the lawn in other areas of the yard and start planting....we have one site eyed already which we hope to do this year.
What beautiful photos of your bounty! You sure can grow beautiful produce there in Hawaii. We grow some of our food, but can certainly expand.
Right now, my apple and pear tree are full of fruit. I have a food dryer and am drying all that I can. I enjoy munching on dried fruit all winter long.
I wish we could grow much more than we do. A lot of the citrus and other fruit trees are still to newly planted to produce much - just a couple of Meyer lemons and a fe calamandines so far....
We are trying to get a tropical apple tree. They are called Anna and they can grow even at sea level in the tropics. We have our name on at least one when the local nursery brings them in next January. It is the only apple we know of tht could possibly grow here.
We had a dehydrator but lost it in the fire and space constraints in our kitchen have stopped me from getting another... :-(
Yes, we are blessed with a year'round growing season on most things...and whatever I can't grow in my location, hopefully someone else can grow it at different elevations and climes........our island has a variety of climates, so much of what can be grown anywhere else in the world could be grown here, if people were farseeing enough....
Some are....but we need more to get on our bandwagon!
Great article. You never cease to amaze me at the things you do. You have more energy that all of us put together. My mother called me over the weekend and they are turning one of the farms near her (she lives in northern Illinois) into a garbage dump for Chicago! Over 400 acres. I can't tell you how much this upsets me, but how is anyone going to stop it. Some of the most fertile land in the world is going to be trashed "literally". Talk about tainted.
I started a Freecycle group on our island a few years ago and we have over 1300 members trying to keep usable/reusable items out of the landfills....
That is a lot of garbage we are keeping from filling up our dumps!
I can see how this article (and your own herb, pepper and fruit garden you've grown with your son Anthony) has grown out of your passion for fresh food ingredients for the best recipes, as well as a mounting concern over the food prices that have been spiking on your islands.
This piece is so well-written, with such excellent photographs, as all of your work I've seen on Gather as well as on your blog.
John, you are such a dear....thank you! Growing as much or whatever possible in our own yards just makes so much sense to me that I cannot conceive the casual way others go about spending so much money in planting and maintaining a lawn that just sits there!!! Besides being practical to have herbs, a few veggies and fruit or nut trees growing in the yard...they are so beautiful!!
We have discontinued most of the commercial chemical spraying, we've advocate the use of organics.
Mmm...Inspite of our business, I am the last one in the list of jobs and since I won't allow spraying of pesticides or other chemicals around me, I have the worst-looking lawns around. [sigh]
Thank you, Sandy! As I say somewhere else above...I truly believe my message and wish my voice would extend beyond my soap box...;-)))
I will have a better one next year! (that's the beginning of the eternal song of the Gardeners the world over.)
Get cracking on working on it to have a bigger and better one! I want to see an article about your wonderful foodie garden by this time next year!
LOL
I could never understand the small size and dark color of the avocadoes I found on the produce bins here. Back home, that would indicate that the avocado has gone bad and is not worth eating!
Duckie, the amazement steems from the fact that The California Avocado Growers, Assc has done a tremendous job of marketing and most people don't realize that the Haas is not the only variety available.
Unless you live in the tropics, Mexico, Southern California or in South Florida you might not be aware that there are well over dozens and dozens of avocadoes available in the world... but the Haas is small, compact and cheaper to ship....;-)
Here is a good comprehensive list of some of the avocado varieties
I should make sure you are aware that one of the newest members of the "Edible" family of magazines is Edible Hawaiian Islands. Check'em out at http://www.ediblehawaiianislands.com/
Peace,
kmf
Yes, I know. I am on the 'roster' as one of their writer/contributors though my articles haven't shown yet on the premier issue. Supposedly in the fall....keep your fingers crossed! I made a mention about you to Gloria C the publisher, in the comments on my article about the fiddlehead ferns.
I wish she would come here and talk to the island people in general.....maybe it would wake up some people!
Risa, I can't grow as many different varieties of tomatoes here due to too much rain....they split before they are ready to pick....but I can grow cheeries, Romas and grape tomatoes, so those are the ones we have!
Sounds like your past gardens were gorgeous! Hope you can do it again in the future. They are work, but to me it so so satisfying to be able to grow things we can eat.
BTW, I love growing the mizuna!
You wowed me with your poem!
BTW, I am Sonia, not Tonia - although I wish I could take photos like her ;-)))))))
.......and I wish I could take pics like yours........LOL
I would LOVE to work with tonia on a project like that!!! ;-)))
Great article. My problem is that I have more space than I have motivation. every year I start out good but about halfway through something happens and things seem to fizzle. I'm hoping that through gather I can share with a community that will help to keep me motivated. So far, So good.
Thanx for the lovely pictures too.
When it comes to motivation....whenever we go grocery shopping, we get all the motivation we need when we look at how prices are escalating for most items. If you have the space for a large garden, that is great....but if not, every little bit you grow yourself goes toward savings in your own wallet.....and the couple of hours a day (if that much!) that it takes to keep the garden neat, watered, weeded, and harvested are hours well spent exercising, which I wouldn't get otherwise...
So overall, look at all the benefits!!! A bit of exercise, the freshest food for your table and savings in your pocket!
I read a message from a person from Kailua that he successfully growing crabapple; and other areas in Big Island can also grow apples and pears. This tree is impulsive buy for me and just an experiment with a lot of care put into it. Since we don't have any chill hours in my area of Hawaii, is it still possible for this tree to bear fruit do you think?