Hawai'i Home Gardens: Growing Vegetables in the Subtropics Using Holistic Methods

By Evan Ryan and Lehua Vander Velde

Hawai‘i Home Gardens is a step-by-step, comprehensive guide to a successful home vegetable gardening experience. Incorporating holistic practices from organic gardening, permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and biointensive design, this book offers simple, practical, and effective approaches to growing food.

This book includes all

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pono Grown Publications
• Release date: Apr 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9780692903872

Evan Ryan

My life choices are inspired by my love of clean air, fresh water, nourishing food, and community connection. I have been graced with opportunities to live and work with many indigenous cultures throughout the world. These experiences have instilled in me a great appreciation for the simple, yet successful farming technologies that have been cultivated over many generations. These systems rely on the land as a teacher and a guide for living in harmony with the earth. In 2000, I began gardening and farming on Maui, and am still loving it today as an agricultural landscape consultant, designer, farmer, project manager, and educator. My focus is applying permaculture systems to production agriculture, and integrating these principles into home gardens, orchards, and commercial farms. I am grateful to see how holistic land care practices consistently yield positive results in any landscape or microclimate. The exponential growth of the farm and garden community on Maui inspired my early involvement as a board member of the Hawai'i Farmer's Union United. Working with the Hawai'i Public Seed Initiative, I have been able to offer free seed and plant exchanges as well as seed saving classes. This multi-island initiative has inspired the Hawai'i Seed Grower's Network, a marketplace for locally grown seeds! In 2015, I began Pono Grown Farm Center, a non-profit organization focused on agricultural education with a mission to increase the connection people have to the land, and empower them to better care for it. This diverse 15-acre farm in upcountry Maui has a vibrant intern program, extensive vegetable gardens, hundreds of fruit trees, chickens, and bees. We farm with rainwater catchment, solar electricity, and power our vehicles with locally produced biodiesel. I am blessed to live onsite at the farm with my loving wife, Danielle and our joyful son, Bija.

Book preview

E Komo Mai

Aloha and welcome to our book on Hawai‘i home gardens. Thank you for taking the time to care for the land and for our community by integrating holistic practices into your garden. Our goal in offering this book is to inspire more people in Hawai‘i to grow vegetables, flowers, and herbs. We hope this book will enrich and guide you toward a thriving home garden experience that fosters self-reliance, enjoyment, and a deeper connection with the earth and these islands we call home.

Hawai‘i has more than 140 soil types and ten microclimates, making it challenging to find appropriate information on how to grow food here. There are subtle differences in soils and climates within our own neighborhoods, in each area of the islands, as well as from island to island. The basic gardening concepts in this book are tools for creating a flourishing garden anywhere in Hawai‘i.

Hawai‘i has seen immense transformation within a very short period of time. Native forests and ethno-botanically diverse ahupua‘a systems once provided food, clothing, and shelter for the entire population living in Hawai‘i. With colonization, the land was turned into large monoculture crop plantations, invasive flora and fauna were introduced, and massive deforestation left barren desert landscapes throughout the islands. Wetlands were filled for urban development, while erosion, runoff and over-fishing continue to deplete our vibrant ocean reef systems. It is important to reintroduce a sense of responsibility to our roles as land caretakers within a very small, yet diverse ecosystem.

Hawai‘i imports nearly 90 percent of our food and 90 percent of our energy on big ships from all over the world. According to the State of Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture in 2012, there was a seven-day food supply available on the islands for residents and guests. This starkly contrasts traditional Hawaiian agriculture in which the complete food supply for hundreds of thousands of people was grown locally. Everyone in old Hawai‘i was connected in some way to agriculture, and the land was honored for its central place in human survival. We must keep in mind that in an emergency, our survival could depend on the abundance of wild plants, feral animals, and ocean-based foods. Caring appropriately for the land will ensure these foods are available for generations to come.

Regardless of where we were raised, we all have gardeners in our lineage, who were strongly connected with the land. In the past, techniques and practices were passed down through multi-generational mentorships that honored the land, streams, and oceans as sacred. This is rarely practiced today, leaving us seeking teachers in our communities, and guidance in local libraries, bookstores, and online.

Throughout this book, we weave creative inspiration, cost cutting strategies, and labor saving ideas with long-term practical solutions. We invite you to return to it as a resource again and again as your relationship with your garden expands. The practices described here offer us all an opportunity to restore our earth one small patch at a time. By doing so, we create a cleaner, richer environment, providing food, medicine, beauty, clean air, abundant water, healthy soil, and an inspired, well-nourished island community.

An elegant and welcoming home garden uses cinder rock walls to create level vegetable beds on a steep slope, and improve drainage in a rainy, windward area.

Holistic Design for Subtropical Climates

Subtropical regions are defined by their latitude and exist at the transition between temperate and tropical climates. Combined with many elevation changes and rainfall variations, Hawai‘i offers an incredible opportunity for growing a diverse array of vegetables and fruits year round. The comfortable living environment is well suited for humans and plants alike. Tropical perennials and temperate vegetables live harmoniously together in the subtropical garden.

The abundance of subtropical diversity extends beyond the food species that can be grown in the Hawai‘i home garden. It also includes an extensive list of pests, diseases, and soil microorganisms that rapidly and continuously digest all forms of organic matter and nutrients. As a result, this unique environment requires a well-rounded set of land-care practices to nurture a healthy foodscape.

Holistic design recognizes that all parts are intimately connected to the whole. A holistic approach to gardening starts with the consideration of all the elements that make up the overall health of one’s personal environment and the importance of managing the complete system. Most of the time, the common challenges home gardeners face, such as a specific insect, pest, or weed, can be solved by looking at other parts of the system, such as soil management.

In the gardening community there are many terms that people use to describe their personal style of growing food. Each of the following definitions explores different aspects of the idea that growing food can be done in a way that renews and supports life.

Holistic Gardening Methods

The holistic gardening recommendations in this book incorporate ideas from the following methods.

Agroecology: Agroecology applies ecological principles to the design and care of agricultural systems. It is a whole systems approach that recognizes that taking care of the greater environment will provide higher yields in relationship to food production, clean air and water, a strong economic system, and thriving communities.

Beyond Organic: Beyond organic refers to a growing style that utilizes many of the holistic methods described in this book to limit the need for products that may be harmful for one’s physical health or the health of the planet. While purchasing certified organic food or gardening products ensures that specific technical standards have been applied, just because something is certified organic, it does not necessarily mean that it is beneficial for people or the land. There are toxic substances currently approved for organic growing, as well as high input methods that deplete natural resources.

Biodynamics: Biodynamic agriculture is a style of organic growing founded on the spiritual insights of Rudolph Steiner in the 1920s. Biodynamic growers seek to create diversity and balance while simultaneously sourcing fertility onsite. Biodynamics works closely with the mystical aspects of our planetary cycles to restore life force to the land.

Biodynamic / French Intensive: This style was created by Alan Chadwick, one of the most influential organic gardening teachers in the West in the past 40 years. It includes aspects of biodynamic agriculture, and incorporates other biologically intensive gardening methods, which focus on highly fertile raised beds and close plant spacing.

Korean Natural Farming: Natural farming, as taught by Master Cho of Korea, seeks to cultivate the indigenous microorganisms that are present in the area you are growing in, and to empower people to minimize fertilizer inputs by preparing simple recipes that can be made at home. These include lactic acid bacteria (LAB), fermented plant juice (FPJ), water-soluble calcium (WCA), water-soluble calcium phosphate (WCP), seawater minerals (SEA), fish amino acids (FAA), oriental herb nutrient (OHN), and indigenous microorganism (IMO). The resulting products are used in a highly diluted form on crops, soil, or compost piles to increase fertility and plant health. Hawai‘i has an active natural farming community that offers classes, products and information to share the benefits of home grown fertility.

Organically Managed: This is a description often posted at farmers markets and retail locations. This communicates to the buyer that the grower uses organic methods, but has not become certified organic.

Natural Farming: Natural farming is a system popularized by Masanobu Fukuoka. This system recognizes the perfection of nature and allows the natural environment to do as much of the work of growing food as possible. In his book The Natural Way of Farming, Fukuoka outlines the four principle guidelines of his system as no cultivation, no fertilizer, no pesticides, and no weeding. Natural farming aims to create a closed loop system that mimics natural systems.

Sustainable: Sustainable is a general word that has become a goal that many communities are seeking to move towards. In terms of agriculture, the word implies practices that will provide nourishing food without limiting the ability of future generations to do the same. More specifically it refers a closed loop system, in which resources are locally sourced and recycled, and do not deplete natural, personal or financial resources.

Permaculture: Permaculture is a word coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the mid 1970’s to describe a broad-scale system of design that extends far beyond the home garden to include all aspects of life. Its principles can be applied to small or large scale systems, such as a garden or an entire island, and seek to mimic the wisdom of the natural world in order to reduce the energetic inputs required. This compound word originated from combining the words permanent and culture into permaculture.

Regenerative Agriculture: Regenerative agriculture is focused on continuously improving growing conditions. This goal is achieved using techniques such as minimum tillage, crop rotation, biodiversity, and increasing organic matter through cover crops, composting, and mulching.

Traditional Hawaiian Agriculture: Traditional Hawaiian agriculture is an intricate land care system that focuses on caring for the entire ecosystem from the mountain to the sea. This system sustained hundreds of thousands of people in the Hawaiian Islands, and many of the models developed by the native Hawaiians continue to be practiced today. The native Hawaiian’s main plant staples are referred to as the canoe plants. The Polynesians who arrived on voyaging canoes introduced these plants to Hawai‘i. These include taro, sweet potato, breadfruit, bananas, coconuts, and sugarcane. These foods were supplemented by meat from animals that the Polynesians brought with them, and wild crafted seafood and seaweed, harvested with the support of manmade fishponds in the coastal waters.

Permaculture Introduction

At its foundation, permaculture is a system of regenerative design created specifically for human settlements using a core set of ethics to evaluate every decision. These ethics are care of the earth, care of the people, and redistribution of the surplus. Permaculture practitioners seek to be in harmony with their natural landscapes, purposefully tending the land that they inhabit, so that the land will provide for their needs.

How do permaculture principles enhance a home garden experience? Creating a solid holistic design allows you to enjoy a fluid system for soil building, planting, weeding, and harvesting with ease. From the beginning, consider which plants will be grown, how to keep the soil fertile, how to access the vegetable beds, where the water is coming from, and how close to the front door you want your garden. The more foresight you have, the fewer obstacles will be encountered.

Permaculture takes into account what is wanted out of your garden. For some people the vision is big and will include a large diversity of food, beauty, and medicine. For others, it may be all about growing a few favorite vegetables.

Permaculture also offers solutions that help minimize the energetic inputs required by a home garden. The result is a system that uses less physical, financial, emotional, and spiritual energy. The goal is for your needs and desires to be provided for, while exerting the least amount of energy, and feeling emotionally and spiritually nourished as well! When growing food is a joyous and playful adventure, it integrates into your life with ease.

The role of design is to combine what a person wants, and what their particular environment is capable of supporting. In addition to defining these two elements, you also need to make sure that you have the resources necessary to properly install and take care of your new creation! A new garden must be easy to manage, so that one can build upon the day-to-day successes and feel encouraged to continue gardening indefinitely.

Assessing Your Landscape

In order to create an excellent design that will succeed for the long term, take into account all the dimensions of your life. Holistic design considerations include observing and assessing the personal, cultural, physical, financial, and political influences in your life and your home site.

Personal Landscape Considerations

The personal landscape considers who you are, how you live, and what inspires you to take action each day. It considers the time that is available to work in the garden so that you can design to a scale that matches the time and energy available. Many home gardens are soon abandoned and overgrown with weeds because they were too big to be properly managed. In Hawai‘i, there is no winter frost to kill everything off once a year, which means the garden needs to be cared for all year long. If the garden is let go for a while, it takes an immense amount of energy to reclaim it back to a functional state.

Cultural Landscape Considerations

Observing Hawaiian cultural traditions prior to developing a garden gives the opportunity to honor and respect the land. Land blessings offered by Hawaiian practitioners clear the space of obstacles. Take time to notice the ways the land has been used before your arrival. Are there sacred sites or interesting landmarks that can be highlighted? Observing the culture of the people living in the area, both past and present, will support a more harmonious interaction with your landscape.

The cultural landscape includes what it is you want to eat, as this dictates the plants you choose to grow. It is also an invitation to explore whether you are open to trying new foods, as there are many plants that grow well in this subtropical environment that may be unfamiliar. Have you ever eaten chayote pickles, poha berry salsa, or taro leaf lau lau? Do these food descriptions spark your curiosity or make you cringe?

The cultural considerations also look at your support networks and your knowledge base around growing food in Hawai‘i. This may include book learning, social media, personal experience, or multigenerational mentoring. It considers who will be spending time with you in the garden. Who will dig up the beds? Who will prepare and eat the food? Who will care for things when you are away? The cultural landscape also includes what your friends, neighbors, and work associates would like to eat. There is no better way to experience the Aloha Spirit than sharing love-filled, nutrient-rich food from your home garden with others!

Physical Landscape Considerations

The physical landscape offers a garden its greatest potential and its greatest limitations. A thorough site analysis guides the design process in a way that results in functional, productive, and beautiful gardens. The more time you spend with your land in the design process, the richer the outcome will be. The system of permaculture recommends people spend one year observing a site before doing anything. While this may not be realistic for you, particularly if you are renting, the concept is worth consideration. In the course of a year a person is able to see the full cycle of seasons, the wind and rain patterns, the way the sun moves through the sky, and to get a greater sense of