New House Landscaping/Dirt

[Wuzzerdad]

Good Morning Travelers []

Looking at new houses VIA the internet from Iowa, and I see they grade the yards with what looks like ground up Lava, which I am sure it has a nice Hawaiian Name for it I couldn't say anyway. I actually like the nice black look as long as it was not a big deal to keep things from growing on it, or if grass could be planted to keep weeds out?

Ok, back on topic...

Can things grow in that soil?, and is there dirt/soil available you can have trucked in to make some raised bed gardens?

Comming sooon to buy a house so we can move away from all the cold and snow...

Thanks in advance as always....

I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
Mahalo
Rick

[leilaniguy]

Most likely what you're seeing around the houses is crushed cinder, it will grow almost anything.

[Rene Siracusa]

Sometimes after grading/grubbing what is left on the surface is blue rock or lava rock (a'a or pahoehoe). If so, you would have to truck in black cinder and then topsoil. Most of our native plants, such as hapu'u tree ferns can grow in just cinder. You can use rock walls or hapu'u trunks to make raised beds. Just be careful about where that topsoil comes from, and that it does not have any unwelcome passengers, such as little fire ants or albizia seeds.

[Wuzzerdad]

Thanks...Is Albizia hard to kill? I hate chemicals but will use them when I have to. The fire ants I have experience with. []

I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
Mahalo
Rick

[Wuzzerdad]

quote:

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Originally posted by leilaniguy

Most likely what you're seeing around the houses is crushed cinder, it will grow almost anything.

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It looks cool, and I have a little Kubota BX23 Tractor/Backhoe that is comming with us with all the attachements to do landscaping. But I would just as soon not cut grass. [:p]

I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
Mahalo
Rick

[Carey]

Albezia seeds are light & fly all over everything (think hyper dandelions) Itsy seedlings are not hard to kill, but they are very prolific & everywhere, and older trees will copice & I have heard tales of cut branches rooting (heck, know that people have used other branches as fence posts & such & they do root...)

The really bad/good thing about the albezia is that they are nitrogen fixers, which would seem to be really good in a nitrogen limited soil like Hawaii island... but the bad thing is that native plants are not as nitrogen dependent as most of the weeds that come in, so albezia also encourage weed growth...

I used to not like to use much in the way of chemicals (back in Illinois, winter stopped the growth for a few months, here, no stopping, just growth & hyper-growth), there is a need to work on your whole property weekly during the "growing season " (ie, it rained that week - which is most weeks), or use chemicals, if the native forest has been ripped....(For a good reference, think May & early June all year 'round)

Cinders are a good medium, as they allow water to drain (very important on the wet side) & provide root support & many nutrients (but not nitrogen). Red & black cinders are sold in Iowa as lava mulch....here they only retard growth until the seeds land in them or the old roots sprout forth anew!

As to grass, many just mow what is growing... most grasses here are not native & other things end up growing with them..

The fire ants here are the Little Fire Ants (LFA) which are also hyper compared to the larger fire ants!!!

Added: to give you a slight idea, we have a very small city lot, with a small orchard & I have been trying to remove the "grass" & plant things....just trimming & keeping things in check, we usually fill 3-5 large mortar bins with green waste (about the same size as the plastic tobagans we used in IL) every 2 weeks.

Ah, Paradise!!

[Kelena]

Most of Puna is green stuff growing in lava. It is amazing how well things do here. In fact, try and kill a tree you don't want. It just seems to make them more determined. But, yeah, lava is a GREAT medium for plants. An exception might be pahoehoe lava, such as you have in certain areas like mine. It is like concrete, and less it is dozed, or you add soil on top or create planters, it is not a good medium. But if your place is dozed, perfecto!

As for bringing things in, the black cinder is really pretty ---glittery, and a great medium for plants. And it is so easy to plant things in. Some people like to mix their cinder with soil.

The important thing to remember is that black cinder and black cinder soil are two very different terms of art. The former is just black cinder; the latter is dirt mixed with black cinder (ask me how I know this!) It is kind of reddish and not black at all in my experience. Black cinder has a strong and beautiful presence. That black cinder soil stuff, not so much, although it holds moisture (and perhaps stabilizes trees) better -- just what we all need in Puna: something that holds moisture better. Not.

I think some dirt is really good to have for a lawn. If you have ever walked across a crunchy lawn in Puna, you will know what I mean. Crunchy lawns are creepy.

[Rene Siracusa]

Re: dealing with albizia - to avoid chemicals, seedlings can be pulled. It's labor intensive but foolproof.

Saplings can be girdled. If you just lop them they will send up new growth with multiple trunks, so don't bother with that unless you poison the cut. If you go that route, get Ortho Poison Ivy Killer and dilute per label instructions; then put in a dish liquid or other squeeze-type bottle (NOT a spray bottle)and apply to the cut end while it is still fresh. You can even up-end a plastic bag or container over the stump to prevent the herbicide from washing off when it rains.

For larger trees: if the fall zone will cross a property line or if there is a structure within the fall zone, you will have to have the tree cut in order to prevent expensive accidents. However if the tree is not that tall or is isolated, you can girdle it (i.e., remove a band of bark all around the circumference). Estimate the diameter within 12" of soil level and add 50% to that measurement to determine the width of the band - so if the D is 20", girdle a band of 30" as close to ground level as you can. Sometimes this works without anything else, but not always, so better to assume it won't and then use the squeeze bottle of herbicide to apply to the de-barked area. A benefit of using the herbicide is that if the tree is in flower or seeding, the seeds will be rendered non-viable.

[nana valley]

quote:

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Originally posted by Wuzzerdad
It looks cool, and I have a little Kubota BX23 Tractor/Backhoe that is comming with us with all the attachements to do landscaping. But I would just as soon not cut grass. [:p]

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I bet you're not bringing your snow blower attachment!![]

[Wuzzerdad]

I bet you're not bringing your snow blower attachment!![]

[:p]

It was 7 degrees F here when I got up this morning, I hate it when the weather can kill you in a few minutes, I hate the snow more than the cold....see you soon....[]

I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
Mahalo
Rick