Seaview Garden Update - A Few Planting Bed Updates - Seaview, Lower Puna Big Island, Hawai'i - April 12, 2022

Warm greetings all. 🙏 💚

It's been a few weeks since I've done a garden update, so I thought I'd do a quick one, revisiting some of the planting beds about which I've talked in previous posts, giving a rundown of some of notable changes. The weather is Seaview is quite a bit different from the off-grid, food-forest, jungle intentional community, where I spend part of my time. It's usually a bit drier in Seaview, and often more consistently sunny. Because of this, as well as the differences in soil, I've noticed some plants, which generally grow well in my jungle community, require more care, and more mindful planting locations.

The first planting bed update is for the round mound bed. I had planted a mamaki, Pipturus albidus, in the center of the mound, with two kinds of kale, two kinds of parsley, a red-leaf lettuce, and plantain, Plantago major, planted around it. Sadly, the mamaki died (along with one of the Italian parsley), despite great effort to keep it alive.

In the time since I originally wrote about creating and planting this bed, I've added many other plants to it, including various green onions and peppers. I also transplanted a plant of Amaranthus viridis into the bed, as it is an excellent source of nutritious greens, and it's not spiny like the rest of the amaranth growing here. In the last photo from this bed, both types of amaranth are easily seen, the spiny Amaranthus spinosus on the left, and the non-spiny Amaranthus viridis on the right. Sweet potatoes, which were growing here previously, before I created the bed, have begun to grow back with vigor - so much so that I may have to remove them, as they tend to cover other plants, and they are already growing well in other locations.

The next update is from the bed created at the base of an Ohia, Metrosideros polymorpha, where I planted various Krishna tulsi, Ocimum tenuiflorum, that I had salvaged and potted up, and comfrey, Symphytum × uplandicum. Both species are recovering and putting out some beautiful new growth. I'll be able to harvest from both soon for my medicinal teas, which is exciting.

The next update comes from the bed created at the base of a hala tree, Pandanus tectorius, where I had planted several larger plants and younger seedlings of the tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, and ramgoat dashalong, Ternera ulmifolia. The monarch butterfly discovered this patch of milkweed, and their caterpillars have eaten most of the leaves of them (when I find the caterpillars, I move them to other plants that can better support them). Thankfully these milkweeds are quite durable and vigorous, and most of them are rebounding with lovely new growth. The ramgoat dashalong are doing well.

The more linear bed that we created, which has more exposed conditions, has some plants doing well, like the lemon mint, Mentha x piperita f. citrata, gotu kola, Centella asiatica, mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, and most of the Pink-flowered tobacco, Nicotiana tobacum. The conditions were too harsh for the lemon balm, Melissa officinalis and my tea plants, Camelia sinensis, which I had to transplant to more protected conditions.

The last update comes from the last planting bed that we created, the forest border wall bed, where I planted Vana tulsi/clove basil/tree basil, Ocimum gratissimum, thimbleberry, Rubus rosifolius, two types of sweet peppers, spilanthes, Acmella oleracea, a papaya, some longevity spinach Gynura procumbens, Okinowa spinach, Gynura bicolor, and a curry tree, Murraya koenigii. A pot of miracle fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum (for which I still need to find a place) and two white Mulberry, Morus alba, can be seen in the forground, in front of the wall bed.

While there are several other smaller updates I could discuss, this is a pretty good batch for the moment. More to come! Thank you all for sharing another Seaview garden update with me! 🙏 💚