GROW O'ahu

Home Gardening in the 808

Old Friends

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Lemongrass needs cut back again…time for tea!

As I shake off months/years of anti-gardening funk and start to grow some things again, it’s a bit like meeting up with old friends. Time stands still for some friends doesn’t it?  No matter how much time passes, you pick up exactly as you left off. But in this case, my plant friends that have far more slug problems than I recall them having in the past! So every night for a week now I’ve gone out after dark (sometimes with preschooler and eldest in tow) with flashlights to remove dozens, perhaps hundreds of slugs from our yard. They are then *ahem* re-homed to the forest, or so I tell the sensitive one. One of those cases when you teach kindness and respect for all life and then it backfires when you try and dispose of a bag of disgusting slugs. 🙂

A quick list of food stuff I have growing again:

  1. Lavender
  2. Rosemary
  3. Eggplant
  4. Lilikoi (passion fruit)
  5. Papaya
  6. Lemongrass
  7. Chaya (tree spinach)
  8. Mamaki (for tea)
  9. Asparagus
  10. Bananas
  11. Ulu (breadfruit tree, not making fruit yet)
  12. Avocado (not too big yet)
  13. Kale
  14. Tomato
  15. Spinach
  16. Swiss Chard
  17. Green onions
  18. Chives
  19. Kalo (taro)

Seriously, not bad considering I haven’t cared at all about food growing in a long time!! Kids and I started some seeds last week and they have sprouted, so soon I want to add to the above list:

  1. Cucumber
  2. Pumpkins
  3. Sweet Corn
  4. Broccoli
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grr. slug damage on the eggplant. But since our nightly slug hunts the population is going down!

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So pleased these Seeds of Change organic pumpkins sprouted! These seeds were over 3 years old.

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Also Seeds of Change organic sweet corn! Old seeds still sprouted.

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Seeds of Change organic cucumber sprouted!

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Our two banana “areas” since they are not really singular trees anymore! We’ve harvested 4x from the one on the right and 2x from the left.

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Our still young ‘ulu tree (breadfruit) from a free tree giveaway years ago. It’s doing really well 🙂

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Wetland kalo (taro) from Windward side grows in our super wet corner

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Mamaki plant for tea

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Chaya, or tree spinach. Tasty if boiled, too tough and toxic to eat raw.

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Kale, that grows like a weed.

Thanks for stopping by friends! I know it’s been awhile. Super easy seed starting tip, get your kid’s elementary school class to save all their milk cartons for you! No need to purchase those silly expensive seed starter kits. 🙂

Author: Carmen

Things I love: justice in all forms; flowers; locally grown food; breastfeeding; feminist theory; outdoor adventures, Divine interventions; 4-H and coffee. Things I loathe: racism; homophobia; toxic crap; misogyny; bad public policy and pitbull-haters. My formal education is in sociology, gender studies, and public policy. I've also been a Lactation Educator; 4-H professional, a Certified Master Gardener/Permaculture Design and spent 15 years working to end domestic and sexual violence. I probably still have powerpoint on all these topics. I've been blogging for many years on dozens of topics- everything from women's health to breed-specific legislation. But the thing I like to write about most is my gardening, food adventures and my kids. So there you have it. Be a kind human. Thanks.

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