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Punaweb Gardening Calendar
#1
There are some gardening calendars on the web - what to plant or do in your garden each season.

My guess would be that in Puna you can plant things almost all year around.

January - anything special in your garden?


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#2
This article "Organic Gardening Month-to-Month Almanac" has useful info for gardening in HI.
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/...08,00.html
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#3
Thank you,Iju.
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#4
Organic Gardening Month-to-Month Almanac

correspondent: Joan Conrow http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/...08,00.html

My motivation for gardening is similar to what got me into cooking two decades ago. I like good, fresh food, and that's not often easy to find outside my home. I also enjoy following the seasons and tuning in to what's going on around me. And I still delight in popping a sunwarmed cherry tomato into my mouth and sharing a minutes-old salad with a supermarket lettuce-eater.

Organic gardening is a challenge in Hawaii. Decades of intensive monocrop chemical agriculture have nearly destroyed the soil and littered it with black plastic. The year-round growing season is great, but introduced diseases, weeds and insect pests also thrive 24/7. In the veggie garden, I've learned to plant plenty and continuously, harvest early and often and change crops quickly to keep ahead of the forces that prey on my plants. And I'm grateful for whatever I get, because I enjoy the process as much as the product.

JANUARY

Hawaii's benevolent climate makes it ideal for permaculture—the concept of putting your landscape to its most effective use by choosing vegetation that will provide some of your basic needs. That might mean planting a mix of trees for food, building materials and other uses, such as koa, milo, citrus, banana, neem, mango, coconut, kukui and native cotton, and selecting a mix of perennials for their medicinal and other purposes, like noni, Suriname cherry, awa, tumeric and sugar cane. In that way, you'll be able to reap many benefits from your landscape, while still getting the shade, privacy, windbreaks and aesthetic qualities you desire. It's all a way to live more self-sufficiently in these isolated islands, where we are already overly dependent on outside sources for most of our basic needs.

Flowering Trees. Experiment with air layering a favorite flowering tree, like puakenikeni or plumeria. It's easier than you think (look for detailed instructions in garden books) and you'll end up with a tree that has all the qualities of the original.

Seed Sowing. Sow seeds of cabbage, snow peas, Chinese greens, soybeans, broccoli and turnips to make the most of the cool, wet weather.

Compost Time. Start composting in earnest; check with your county's solid waste office as some offer free home composting units and/or presentations on the best method.

Local Trees. Grow an ohia lehua, the beautiful red-flowering, hardwood tree endemic to Hawaii, if you want a striking specimen tree in your landscaping. Although most often found in the mountains, ohia can grow almost anywhere with ample water.

Stay Away From Non-Native Flowers and Plants. Resist the urge to plant wildflower seeds from the mainland—even if they're pretty—and other nonnative flowers and grasses that can easily spread in Hawaii's mild climate. What's lovely elsewhere can quickly become a pest species in the islands.

Developing Delicious Papaya. Plant papaya seedlings in areas with good drainage as they rot in standing water. Plan to feed them monthly through the year; they like lots of nitrogen and compost.

Plan Your Plantings. Schedule your plantings with the moon (and turn off outside lights so you can see it and maintain Hawaii's dark skies.) Plant root crops between the full and new moon, and aboveground crops between the new and full moon.

Cut Back Diseases and Dying Plants. Get rid of insect-infested, yellowing, diseased or otherwise stressed shrubs and landscape plants. A little extra kaukau (food) like compost or kelp will help restore their health.

Splendid Starfruit. Plant a starfruit tree now and you could be eating its sweet, juicy fruit this time next year.

Be Civil With Spiders. Resist the urge to kill spiders, although they're everywhere now. Their numbers will diminish as spring approaches, and they eat a lot of mosquitoes. Most are harmless, but the small, round crab spiders can inflict a nasty bite.

Hint from November-
What To Do With Papaya Seeds. Keep papaya seeds out of the compost pile. Instead, feed the seeds (and skins) to your chickens or make salad dressing: 1/4 c fresh papaya seeds, 1 c. Safflower oil, 1/4 c honey, 1/4 cup lemon juice. Pinch of chopped mint. Run in blender until seeds are ground.

mella l
mella l
Art and Science
bytheSEA
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#5
WONderful!!! Thanks for that great read.

Carrie Rojo

"Every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope; and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable."
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Carrie Rojo

"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future..." Galadriel LOTR
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#6
Thank you,Mella!
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just ask a question first.
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#7
You're welcome Still!! Perhaps someone will cut and paste February when it gets here. It is an interesting and informative guide for Puna! Rather like Sunset magazine monthly to do garden list for the puna. Speaking of Sunset mag, think I'll start another thread.

mella l
mella l
Art and Science
bytheSEA
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#8
"FEBRUARY.
Unpredictable weather has become the norm for Hawaii this winter, with the usual tradewind pattern frequently replaced by strong kona weather systems. This translates into hot, dry southwest winds, generally sunny skies and far fewer rain showers, making wintertime gardening more challenging. Still, success is possible, although it requires one to devote more time and care to the garden. I tend to see that as a good thing, as gardens thrive under our personal attention.

Time Your Watering. Water thoroughly each morning during windy periods to keep soil moist all day.

Beautiful Beans. Grow Filipino long beans (ask friends for seeds or purchase some very mature beans with seed pods at the local farmers' markets) for a prolific, hardy and disease resistant source of green beans all year long. Fences can become gardens if you plant Filipino long beans, oregano, cucumbers, moon flowers (don't let these escape into the wild!), snow peas, stephanotis, black-eyed Susans and other climbing flowers and vegetables along them. Dig holes or shallow trenches and amend with compost, then plant seeds or seedlings.

Planting Schedule. Plant cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, cucumber, lettuce, Chinese greens, green onions, cherry tomatoes, turnips, daikon and soybeans.

Arugula and Kale. Sow seeds of arugula and kale for hardy, perennial sources of dark green vegetables suitable for salads or cooking.

Catch Those Caterpillars. Collect caterpillars from the undersides of kale, cabbage and other cole crops to reduce leaf damage caused by cabbage moth, which lays its eggs on the leaves, which are then devoured by the hungry keiki.

Manage Fallen Bananas. Chop fallen banana trees into chunks with a machete and let them decompose right in the banana patch, providing an excellent source of food.

Cut Back Old Plants. Cut ginger and other yellowing or worn tropicals down to the ground, cover with a layer of compost, manure and mulch to keep down weeds and keep watered. Plants will sprout new leaves in spring and flower in summer."

Anything else useful?




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