This week my husband busted out the tractor and tiller and grubbed out some grass and tilled a bit on a new 25 ft x 10-ish ft garden area. The clay we have here definitely makes a till pan, so we went over it with a garden fork and shovel, and then I broke it up with a metal rake.
The next step is to let whatever kikuyu pop up in the losened soil so we can find it and turf it out. That grass could definitely moonlight as steel cable. I plan to put in some brassicas and beans, basically. I wish I had some potato to put in first, but cabbages are one thing I know will grow all the time here in great abundance.
I have a little more clean up and replanting to do in the greenhouse, and all housing (animal and people) needs the deep cleaning that teachers often do during school breaks.
I also have this strangely Fall urge to bake and make soups and stews. Hopefully, I will make enough to freeze or can, so there are quick meals to have as the days get shorter (even in Hawaii). I never quite got around to do as much of that as I'd planned during the summer.
Happy Sunday, everyone!
4 comments:
Hi NancyDe,
It sounds as if you have had a very productive weekend preparing garden beds. Kudos to you.
Back on Maui, my sister showed me pictures of the eggplant she harvested from the plants I put in the ground. I had her prune a small Kadota fig tree that has been giving us good fruit.
I hope you had some time to do some riding and relax a little.
Cheers!
CT, I wonder if we're too up mauka for figs? It gets pretty cool up here. No riding yet.... I keep getting side-tracked into little projects. You need to carve a good couple hours out of the day to ride - especially Crazy Horse Gib, because I swear he's had a traumatic brain injury and you have to reteach him things every single time - things like, "I am not going to hurt you; yes, you do have to stand still when someone mounts..."
Hi NancyDe,
I've been reading up on some fig farms on Hawaii. I think most of them are on the Leeward side in Kona. Here's a link to a recent project:
http://www.hawaiifruit.net/figs.htm
It might be worth trying it where you are. I've been able to propagate several trees from cuttings. They will fruit within a year or two. We currently have three kadota fig trees. I'm on the lookout for brown turkey fig trees.
One of the problems I've encountered is rust on the leaves. The other problem is harvesting them before the birds get them. They're delicious fresh off the tree.
I can imagine that the rust might be an issue with the amount of rainfall you get. But it might still be worth a try to grow something different and so tasty.
I wonder if you'd be able to grow stone fruits like plums and peaches in your cooler climate. I know they grow them in Kula on Maui at the 2000+ feet elevations. Maybe apples, persimmons and olives could work too.
Cheers!
We do have olive trees - keikis - some citrus, but only the lemon does very well. We have an avocado from a nursery, but it takes extra long at this elevation. I know our neighbor has an apple tree, but it isn't very productive - ours isn't thriving, either. but it was a volunteer. I do wonder about low chill plums or peaches, but haven't gotten any.
Of course, we have banana and guava, too. I hadn't thought about figs. If most of them are in Kona, I wonder if it would be too wet here? You can't imagine 200 inches of rain until you live through it. I grew up on the windward side of Oahu, and I thought I knew rain....!
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