Taking Back Control

From last Friday, April 14, 2017, I came to the garden with a desire to cut those ever-growing pesky weeds that always outgrow our plantings. We recently bought a new tool that blends the maneuverability of a trimmer and the power of a mower. This hybrid of a mower/trimmer went through those weeds like butter! What a gratifying feeling to finally have the power to control the weeds! However, there are still more weeds to go through, but I believe that since the purchase of the new mower we will finally be able to step forward in our progress of maintaining Mālaola.

Picture of weeds before being mowed down. Weeds were about waist high!

The new mower is a godsend! Finally can see the bases of our own plantings.

Our banana trees are producing fruits! A great snack for a good day's work.

Tidying up the Ti Patches

What a fantastic day! This youthful group from Halau Kaululauae were very enthusiastic in keeping the ti patches tidy and free of weeds. Nevertheless, there were other tasks throughout the day; competition on who can pull out the biggest weeds from the ti patches, small groups hastily gathering crown flowers and 'a'ali'i for lei-making, and propagating more ti! This young group of hula students did a lot for the garden. More than they know!

Thank you Kumu Miki for bringing such a wonderful group!   

Removing weeds from the ti patches.

 

Collecting crown flowers for lei-making later in the day.

Cutting more ti and planting the ti cuttings into the soil.

Halau Hula Kamamolikolehua Officially Joins Our 'Ohana

We are so fortunate to have gained the support of Halau Hula Kamamolikolehua, under the tutelage of Kumu Pohai Souza, at the Malaola. The Halau is connected to Halau 'o Kaululaua'e by lineage and has committed to quarterly volunteer workdays in 2017. Today was the first!

We had a tremendous showing of dancers of all ages and parents/spouses, about 50 in total! Their help could not have come at a better time because of the overgrowth of weeds and pohinahina due to all the rain we've been experiencing. They sure worked hard!

We thank everyone for their kokua, which resulted in a great accomplishment! Special thanks to Darlene Loo-McDowell and her husband for hauling the greens for recycling.

Happy New Year! First Workday of 2017

Happy New Year to all our viewers! We hope that you had a wonderful 2016 Christmas and a great celebration into the new year!

We got through the first workday of 2017 fine, thanks to comfortable, cool weather. We put in a handful of plants, and hopefully we will see them grow vigorously in the coming months! It was a great first workday of the new year.

One of the few plants we outplanted in the new year. 'Uki'uki.

Small Naupaka.

The ti leaf patches needed some tidying!