spring '19 garden notes
/The garden blogs I read are just bursting with enthusiasm. So many different types of beautiful gardens all around the world and for those experiencing spring, you can hear the excitement in their posts. Hawaii has similar weather all year long, but if you pay attention, you can see the different seasons and changes in the landscape. The mango and avocado trees all around town are exploding with flowers and soon they’ll be heavy with lots of fruit.
A couple of weeks ago I planted two Thompson seedless grapevines. It’s pretty experimental as grapes usually like more chill but fingers crossed. The limes and myer lemons are abundant and getting squeezed on just about everything we eat and drink around here, and the papayas are in season. Tatsoi is a mild green that’s been growing super well this year because of the colder than usual winter and harvesting them is like picking a giant bouquet of greens. The surinam cherry has started to fruit. They look like tiny red pumpkins and I pick a small handful every couple of days, eat a few for their high vitamin C content and then throw the rest into the freezer until I have enough to make a small batch of jam. It’s a tart jam, almost like cranberries which is wonderful with chicken or pork.
My garden is small and it’s very hilly but I’ve got every square inch planted with something and it’s fun to experiment with different plantings and see what works. The poha berries (also called ground cherries) never do well but I keep planting them for the couple of handfuls I get each year. It made a delicious salsa spooned over grilled fish.
The eggplants and tomatoes were just transplanted into the raised beds, along with perilla and the ever present kale. I also started a few plants from pineapple and a pomegranate fruit that I bought at the grocery store and it will be interesting to see if they actually bear fruit. Whether you have a pot on a window sill or an acre to farm, happy spring gardening.