Waimea Gardening - Dry Side (Honokaa: organic, store, garden)

[Kaskade503]

Hi
Can anyone please advise me what the veggie gardening would be like on dry side of Waimea?
Would raised beds be the way to go, I have a small yard in mostly full sun, elevation is around 2200.
Advice of how to do raised beds?
Thanks!


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[hotzcatz]

The raised beds are brilliant since it keeps all the soil amendments, fertilizers and water in one spot and it makes weeding and reaching the plants very easy. Sometimes it gets a bit windy on that side, so that might be something to take into consideration when you're choosing the site for your garden. Wind will dry it out so if it is in a windy spot, lining the inside of the walls of the raised bed area (but not the floor) with plastic might help keep the moisture in.

We're in Honokaa and we like raised bed gardens a lot. We use three layers of concrete blocks since that raises it to a nice height. We tried just rocks, but then there were a lot of centipedes, they don't like the concrete blocks as much for some reason. The garden width is as far as we can reach in from either side and as long as we have the blocks to build.

We will put a line of blocks down, then the next layer is offset by one hole with the corner blocks alternating directions. If the first layer is put on straight and true, the rest goes together really easily. Once we get up to the two layers, we put in concrete stakes or short lengths of rebar in some of the holes in the blocks. They're pounded down to when we put the last layer of concrete blocks down, the rebar will be below the top edge of the block wall.

Once the blocks are set up, we put a layer of weed mat across the bottom to keep weeds from coming up through the bottom. Then the bottom 2/3'rds are filled with whatever soil we have handy. We fill in the holes in the bricks, too. The top layer is the best topsoil mixed with compost that we can get our hands on. We mix in biochar/charcoal (have a bon fire and spritz the logs before they're totally burned and you have charcoal), bunny manure and oyster shell (you can get that at the feed store by the police station for about $5) and rake it smooth and it's ready to plant.

I've put in irrigation systems on the raised beds and that's made them even easier. Just a couple of regular lawn sprinklers per bed on a timer. To water the gardens, it's just go out and twist the timer for however long I want the gardens watered.

For seeds, you can get them from the U of H online for $1 per packet and that includes the postage. Agricultural Diagnostic Service Center - Seed Program They don't have a huge amount of varieties, but they do have seeds acclimatized to Hawaii.

If you want to grow tomatoes, the cherry and Roma do well. Otherwise, fruit flies get them. But, if there are fruit fly traps, then you can grow big tomatoes. You can go to the Agricultural Extension Office (in the same green grassy area as the Police station in Waimea) and tell them what you're growing and they can tell you how to make fruit fly traps out of a soda bottle and they have the bait that you put inside to attract them into the bottle. Different fruit flies like different vegetables, so they will set you up with the right ones for your garden.

Now is a good time for the more delicate lettuces such as Manoa and other green leafy ones. When it gets hotter during the summer, the red ones and the romaines do much better. Buttercrunch is a good summer lettuce. Most onions won't bulb up unless you get daylight neutral ones. Garlic doesn't do well in Hawaii at all.

We usually have tomatoes, cooking herbs, celery (just take the stalks as you need them and let the rest of the plant keep making more. Ours finally died this winter but it was six years old so we have to plant more now), lettuces, kale, beets, choi sum, beans - lots of beans, and marigolds and nasturtiums.

We get some seeds from these folks, too: Heirloom Seeds & Organic Seeds | Sustainable Seed Co and http://www.southernexposure.com/ If you get 'open pollinated' or 'heritage' seeds, then you can harvest the veggies, save the seeds and use them again the next season and you'll get the same variety. If it's a 'hybrid' type of seed, then no telling what quality will show up in the next crop. Since seeds get saved from the previous crop, then I can use my seed money for new and different varieties instead of just replacing what was grown the season before.