We are taking a brief break in writing our trip report. We have written twelve posts so far about our summer trip and anticipate about 4-5 more in the coming weeks. Neil is working on co-authoring a paper with his daughter Mailea and hasn’t had time for photo processing. Me? I just needed a few days away from my computer 😉

I have been enjoying time with my mom Audrey before she returns to California a few months. We walk the beach 3 mornings a week. She is busy with various activities the other mornings! We enjoyed a delicious four course lunch last Wednesday at the Maui Culinary Arts School “Leis Family Class Act Restaurant.” The restaurant is run by the culinary students doing an intern program—open twice a week during the semester. Mom’s condo neighbor is completing the culinary program and she was one of the chefs. She came by our table to say hello. The students are the wait staff, baristas, maître d’, as well as the food preparation personnel through the semester in order to experience all the roles in restaurant environment. They do a great job!

We went on a whale watch boat a few weeks ago. It was the first time Neil and I as well as my mom had been on the water this season. From our lanai, we do get to watch whales breaching and tail slaps through binoculars a few miles off shore but we always enjoy getting a little closer view on the boat. It was whale soup as we call it–seeing whale spouts in all direction around the boat. We followed a few mom and calf pairs watching the little one come up often to get a breath. A couple of males swam up to challenge the primary (male) escort accompanying one mom and calf and we were “mugged” — the whales get so close to the boat, it can’t move till the whales choose to move farther away.  We saw fluke up dives, pecks slaps, and the finale of four breaches on our way back to the harbor.

In sad news, Neil’s step-father Morley has been declining since November. He had been getting so weak and he fell a few times when his legs just gave out. Once on the floor (unhurt) he just doesn’t have the strength to get back up. He went to the hospital for pneumonia and fluid on the lungs in Nov. He never regained much strength and went to the hospital a second time in January with high fever in addition to not being able to get up. That time, they operated to scrape the accumulated jelly-like fluid from around the lungs. After nearly a month in the hospital, he was moved to a skilled nursing facility for rehab. He has just finished the month of rehab with minimal progress. He got pneumonia again and is continually exhausted and sleepy. Neil and I have been spending a good deal of time supporting Jean and traveling to visit Morley. We also write frequent updates to his daughters in Minnesota. Jean misses Morley but knows she is unable to be a caregiver with her own health issues. She is doing well living alone (with us next door for support.) She has come to grips with the fact that life will not return to the way it was, and she seems to be coping well with the stress of continuing uncertainties and the many decisions that need to be made.

On top of that it is the one year anniversary since the passing of Neil’s older brother Perry Wayne Rhoads in Massachusetts. Neil misses him, especially each time he reads a good joke. Perry loved to laugh and always had a joke ready. His passing was very sudden. He was surrounded by his beloved Paula, his children, family and friends when he died just over a week after he was admitted to the hospital. Neil was in touch with Paula during the week and wrote email updates to Perry’s friends who were unable to get to the hospital. Jean and Neil were in the process of booking flights when the news arrived of his passing. He is loved and missed by many.

On a happier note, I will be a great aunt again twice over this summer. My nieces Madison and Hailey are both expecting and we just found out both babies are boys! Quentin has been the only great-grandson for 14 years. My parents have three great-granddaughters, Quentin’s little sisters. We are thrilled for the new-to-be parents and grandparents!

We still enjoy breakfast tea on the lanai with our green gecko friends. They have to make do with frozen mango juice but they don’t complain. It will be several months before they get fresh mango. We do have a lot of blossoms on the mango trees so we’re hoping for a good crop. At the one year mark, our planter pot hedge just reached the top of the lanai rail. They still need to fill in thicker but we’re happy with the growth progress. The hearts and flowers ground cover greenery has draped down the edges of the planters making a beautiful display.

In January, we decided to work on reestablishing the landscaping in front of our cottage lanai.  When we moved in, there was a full hedge all the way along the front that provided privacy and a slight buffer from road noise. We also loved having our Cardinal bird feeder cups inside the hedge branches so we could watch them feed and enjoy their chirps and songs. The bushes have been gradually dying off one by one from North to South. They would turn brown a branch at a time and lose their leaves until eventually the whole bush was dead. We have tried several times to regrow plants in the ground but have been unable to get anything to grow (except Aloe Vera.) We think the ground is fairly “dead” from years of an industrial herbicide being sprayed around the bushes and now the banyan tree (a Weeping Fig) is spreading huge roots taking the available ground nutrients and starving out other plants. We love the spreading banyan tree on the property providing wonderful shade from the Kihei sun but in the process of growing huge apparently banyans crowd out any competition.

To get a nice hedge started again, we thought we’d create an above ground growth environment. That meant we wanted to consider planter pots or a planter box. You know us: we researched, calculated, shopped, and debated. We chose limestone colored pots, a good potting soil, and narrow red leaf crotons. Narrow leaf crotons had been the majority of the former hedge and they allow good cardinal viewing!

Now came the outside work: clearing and transplanting the aloe vera, pulling out the dead bushes, leveling the ground, placing the paving stones, positioning the pots, filling the dirt and planting the bushes. Part of this work, of course, included stakes, string, tape measure, and spirit level in order for the pots to be positioned evenly and level. Neil was able to link up to the existing irrigation system and extend a small drippier line to each separate pot providing water when the lawn is being watered each night. We have had a lot of onshore winds and rain squalls this year in Kihei. The plants are loving it but the croton bushes started leaning in the pots from the strong wind pressure. We carefully staked them up while they are developing their root structure in the pots.

Our hope is that the narrow leaf crotons in the pots will grow up and spread together creating a hedge-like wall that will be trimmed at the top height of the lanai (just like they were years ago). The nursery people said that crotons always have a foot or more gap above the soil before they start having branches and leaves. So just inside the rim of the pots we have planted a ground cover called “Hearts and Flowers” that will eventually drape down and hide the sides of the pots with green. To fill the gap below the crotons with a natural mosquito deterrent we also planted starts of citronella (also known as lemon geranium, not the real citronella plant which is a grass). In addition, we hope to get some plants to grow in the ground around the pots. Neil found and ordered several types of seeds that flower but also are a natural mosquito deterrent: Bee Balm, Horse Mint, and Ageratum. Horse Mint (also known as Lemon Mint or Lemon Bee Balm) is very hardy, is salt tolerant, grows in sun or shade, deters mosquitoes yet attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Neil planted some seeds in peat pots and has carefully nurtured them. We got some planted in the pots and the ground last week. It is interesting how some of the same seeds planted at the same time grow faster than others. We are carefully watching them including watching for slugs and caterpillars.

There is one in-ground croton still doing beautifully at the southern corner of the lanai. Although the croton bush is currently full and colorful, we fear (and anticipate) that it too will eventually be affected by the banyan tree. We prepared a sixth croton planter pot the same way we did the five in front of the lanai. We currently enjoy it below the kitchen window in our side garden. We will be able to move the sixth pot if we lose the in-ground croton and the pot will fit right into the front hedge because it was planted at the same time. Otherwise we can continue to enjoy the croton bush out the kitchen window.

Long after it died, we left one dried dead croton standing in the front because it still holds the first two bird feeder cups we put up long ago. They are the ones the male and female cardinals prefer to use. They have us trained: when they come and sit on the branch or rail chirping, we go out and put a few striped sunflower seeds in each cup while they fly up and watch us from the tree above. Then they swoop in to eat what they want before the finches come and devour the rest. The day we cleaned out the garden and had to take it out “their” bush, the cardinals were lost. They would fly in chipping but had no place to land. Neil used stakes to prop up the dead tree out in the yard during the several days we worked and the cardinals adapted immediately to eat from cups in the new location. Once we finished planting the pots, we trimmed down the dead bush, leaving the feeling cups and some branches and tied it to the lanai rail as our “temporary” cardinal feeder until the new hedge in front grows big enough to support the feeder cups and the cardinals.

As with most projects, they always expand! We decided to continue the above ground gardening to the area behind Morley and Jean’s house. We had not been able to get anything to grow in the ground there after the hibiscus bushes started dying (again, from the industrial herbicide the landscaper insisted on using). It looked pretty barren and sad for a few years. Now the area is full of a variety of plants and ferns thanks to our friends, especially Anita, who shared many many plant starts with us! We also added hanging planters and reed fencing to camouflage the water heater and plywood shield that were an eyesore in this area before.  Neil installed a drip irrigation system for this garden as well.

Next year we hope to share a photo with you of our young established hedge with beautiful flowering plants (and a notable absence of mosquitoes)!

[Click on any photo in the gallery below  to see the full size image. Then click on the left or right arrow below it (or use your keyboard arrows) to move through all the other photos. ]