We have
always done a bit of gardening around our cottage. We've planted both
flowers and vegetables, and we have a few herbs planed in front of the
cottage among the bushes and the aloe vera. What promoted us to expand
our efforts was getting a new fence along the side yard.
The tall thick panax trees on the property line were growing across the line and pushing over the neighbor's existing fence. When the trees were cut down, we discovered a view of the sky out our kitchen window!
Our neighbor did a great job on the fence but it was so "white", we wanted to get some green back. With the generosity of many friends, we got lots of starts; red ginger plants and haliconia at first. You can see from the photo that they looked very small and sad at the beginning. We planted these tall flowering plants so we would have color out our kithen window.
We also got some starts for lower-growing purple and yellow flowers which we planted makai (seaward) so they would be beautifully set off by the white fence.
And one year later, we are so pleased to be getting flowers blooming... and the greenery is growing up to be viewable from the kitchen window!.
I was so excited when we started getting haliconia and red ginger blooms! Notice the little green gecko on the haliconia flower! We have over a dozen very happy geckos and anoles wandering around snatching up every mosquito, fly, and gnat they can find. More power to 'em!
You can also see tiny bits of the yellow and purple flowers in the lower right of the pitcure.
All the work on the side yard made us start looking at the back of the property. It was full of ratty fishtail palms (this photo is a view from the roof of house next door to give an idea of the dead brown bushiness.)
Neil and I worked to remove the trees wearing masks because "ratty" was literal, there were stinky rat nests in the decaying parts of the trees and dust from rodent feces can be very unhealthy to breathe. The back yard became an open space
and then became row crops 
We mostly planted vegetables and I was so proud of my first harvest of radishes. Unfortunately, Kihei is known for it's hot weather and lots of bugs. We have gotten away from the vegetable plants and stuck with the mints, herbs, and plants that work in the environment. Years of rodent droppings apparently made the soil quite fertile! Too much nitrogen makes radish plants have lots of greenery with small radishes. Sadly, they're not worth the bother.
Here you see us with our mint plants, Hawaiian pepper, lemon grass, chives, climbing lilikio (passion fruit) and cucumbers.
The tall thick panax trees on the property line were growing across the line and pushing over the neighbor's existing fence. When the trees were cut down, we discovered a view of the sky out our kitchen window!
Our neighbor did a great job on the fence but it was so "white", we wanted to get some green back. With the generosity of many friends, we got lots of starts; red ginger plants and haliconia at first. You can see from the photo that they looked very small and sad at the beginning. We planted these tall flowering plants so we would have color out our kithen window.
We also got some starts for lower-growing purple and yellow flowers which we planted makai (seaward) so they would be beautifully set off by the white fence.
And one year later, we are so pleased to be getting flowers blooming... and the greenery is growing up to be viewable from the kitchen window!.
I was so excited when we started getting haliconia and red ginger blooms! Notice the little green gecko on the haliconia flower! We have over a dozen very happy geckos and anoles wandering around snatching up every mosquito, fly, and gnat they can find. More power to 'em!
You can also see tiny bits of the yellow and purple flowers in the lower right of the pitcure.
All the work on the side yard made us start looking at the back of the property. It was full of ratty fishtail palms (this photo is a view from the roof of house next door to give an idea of the dead brown bushiness.)
Neil and I worked to remove the trees wearing masks because "ratty" was literal, there were stinky rat nests in the decaying parts of the trees and dust from rodent feces can be very unhealthy to breathe. The back yard became an open space
and then became row crops We mostly planted vegetables and I was so proud of my first harvest of radishes. Unfortunately, Kihei is known for it's hot weather and lots of bugs. We have gotten away from the vegetable plants and stuck with the mints, herbs, and plants that work in the environment. Years of rodent droppings apparently made the soil quite fertile! Too much nitrogen makes radish plants have lots of greenery with small radishes. Sadly, they're not worth the bother.
Here you see us with our mint plants, Hawaiian pepper, lemon grass, chives, climbing lilikio (passion fruit) and cucumbers.
We will say Aloha till next season.