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+--- Thread: Foundation planting (/showthread.php?tid=7211)
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Foundation planting - hpp4me - 04-20-2010
Looks like we'll be coming to Puna later this summer to put in our foundational trees. You folks have been great at suggesting trees likely to do well on their own, as we have to rely on Mom Nature for water.
Anyway, when we arrive we will need to hire some help. We need a person who has the equipment to mow paths through the brush and dig some holes. We'll also need to have those hills filled with appropriate growing material.
If you know someone who is reliable and up to the task, please give me their contact info.
Mahalo!
RE: Foundation planting - Carey - 04-20-2010
As to what does best, it depends. I am making a guess by your signin that you are moving to HPP, but even within HPP there are soo many different microclimes from dry lava flow areas to tropical rainforest with heavy growth.... & Puna extends all the way up to the cooler areas of Volcano....
I was in a rush to plant, and have found that most trees are fairly quick here... fruiting anywhere from one to 4 years after planting.
There are soo many opportunities to try others produce & refine what you want to plant (and there is such a great diversity of fruiting trees, that you may want to spend a while just trying the bounty of what you may want to plant...and make sure you go to the Plant it Hawaii sale (usually one in the spring - it just was- and one in the fall), the BIAN sale at the stadium, and even community sales for a great selection of wonderful plants to choose from.
RE: Foundation planting - hpp4me - 04-20-2010
Hi, Carey,
We have already talked to nursery people and have lots of suggestions from this community from an earlier post. We know what we will be planting.
My question today is, do you folks know anyone good for helping us whack through the brush, drill holes, and bring in planting materials. I'm guessing this will be someone with a small bulldozer, but I'm not sure. We want to dig holes rather than bulldoze the entire acre, which seems like an unnecessary attack on Mother Nature.
Thanks for replying.
RE: Foundation planting - pslamont - 04-20-2010
Have you considered, rather than bringing in a dozer to dig, stacking rock to make raised areas? There is a fine example in front of Rosette's Nursery (around 27th and Paradise I think). I have seen several homes with lovely landscaping done this way in HPP. You choose your area over something with a crack in it for drainage and then pile rock in any of several fashions to form a wall two to three feet tall. You will the rock walled area with dirt and mulch and have a great growing area. Getting rock delivered is around $400 give or take. Getting a dozer is a $250 delivery fee, then around $175 an hour..... could be worth looking into....
Aloha and welcome to Puna
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
RE: Foundation planting - hooligal - 04-20-2010
Be sure to leave LOTS of room around the spot for your future house. Auntie lost a lot of trees she had planted when the dozer, lumber delivery, lua trucks, etc showed up for the house build [
]* I'd rather fail at happiness than succeed at misery *
RE: Foundation planting - Carey - 04-21-2010
I had a case of reading to quickly on the first post, except for the part on WHERE you are.
Bare rock planting is sooo much different than planting where there is some to a lot of soil.... and it also really matters how you start by what is on your land.... some of the giant albezia's in Puna, including many in HPP really do define how you will proceed (although some are against using bulldozers, the only marginally affordable way to deal with some of the monster trees is with a fairly large dozer...)
Some of our friends in lower HPP have mostly lava flows, and do much of their planting in pukas & crack lines in the flow, just fill with cinder soil & plant. other friends in Puna have multi feet thick soil. most is somewhere in-between.... even adjacent lots can have completely different situation. Even in HPP, some lots have an amazing number of large dumped items, mostly autos, other lots that we have helped clear end up having had rock walls installed years prior (could not tell until we started clearing the vegetation back, one even had a small house that had been completely overgrown by vegetation.... and the owner had no idea it was there!
To make a good recommendation, what type of vegetation are you looking at clearing, what is the base ground like, what all is on your lot, what is the rec. hole size for the plants you looking at, and is this mainly perimeter plantings. All of these will help, most people look at least at renting a jack hammer or core driller, some need the power of a dozer, either for holes or for taking out the junk trees & junk.... also the dozer may be a necessity for a drive & such.... If you haven't been on a walk about on your lot (some who move here haven't), there may be some here that can do that...
RE: Foundation planting - hpp4me - 04-21-2010
pslamont, thanks for the raised bed idea. I will look into that. Would this approach work for big trees like Mangos? Do we need rock walls? Could we just make large mounds and then put in one gallon plants? What happens when the roots hit the hard rock surface? I still have trouble with the idea of big trees growing out of lava, but it obviously happens all over Puna!
hooligal, great suggestion. We do need to factor in the extra room needed for bulldozing.
Carey, our lot has a lot of low growth, mostly ferns. Other than a few ohias there are no big trees and no albezia. It looks like the lot has never been built upon and Google Earth shows no signs of old walls or foundations. We bought our lot without ever walking on it. Too much brush. There does not seem to be much soil, but things somehow manage to grow.
RE: Foundation planting - hpp4me - 04-21-2010
On a related topic, what have y'all grown in the "edible hedge" category. We want to put a hedge around the property that will generate food. Suggestions we have received include coffee, salak, chili pepper tree, cacao, banana, Brazilian cherry, yellow jaboticaba, surinam cherry.
The last three in the list are mysteries. We've never tried them or seen them.
Location: 3rd ave.
RE: Foundation planting - Carey - 04-21-2010
Palms, inc, coconut, date and manila; vines, inc. grape (no fruit, yet) and lilikoi
we also have moringa which is often grown as a hedge and of course ti plants (although not eaten, good for food wraps)
some also plant bamboo (non running) for shoots
RE: Foundation planting - hpp4me - 04-21-2010
Carey, what coconut species have the best chance of not getting that fungus that's been killing off these trees on the islands? (I asked this on another thread but did not get a reply yet.)