February In The Hawaiian Garden
|
Typically, Makahiki season ends during the month of February and instead we enter the Ku Season, a time of action. I am working hard in my garden, getting beds weeded, old crops harvested, new plants seeded and the animals under control. I like to seed up spring crops such as Daikon, Collards, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and Green Onions early in the month so that they'll be ready to transplant in Early March. If you are wanting to grow some cool season crops, you can still get a harvest in before things get too hot, just make sure you get them seeded RIGHT AWAY, as in today or tomorrow. (If you're looking for more ideas on what to seed this time of year, check out my ebook, Month To Month In The Tropical Garden)
What To Do In The GardenWhile the seeds do their thing, I spend a lot of time preparing garden beds this time of year. The old garden beds get weeded and amended with good compost and some animal manure, making sure that the beds are light and fluffy for transplanting time. If you don't have any garden beds yet, you can make new ones by covering the ground with cardboard to suppress the weeds and mounding a bunch of compost, mulch and if you have it, soil over the cardboard. Let your newly prepped beds sit for a month to breakdown and they'll be ready to grow almost anything you want. What We're Harvesting This MonthFebruary can be kind of a shoulder season, but there's still plenty that we're harvesting. I seem to be drowning in Ulu, (if you have any recipes, I can sure use more). Rollinia and Soursop are producing well and as always, we have a steady supply of perennial greens such as collards, sweet potato, Kalo, Laupele, Chaya, Katuk and more. There is a harvest chart located in the Month By Month In The Tropical Garden eBook that shares what to harvest in a beautifully illustrated chart. What's New With Homesteadin' HawaiiI want to make sure everyone thrives in the garden this year, that's why I plan on releasing a video by the end of the month "40 Hours To Prep The Spring Garden" to be released on my YouTube channel. I know I promised it last month, but it proved to be a larger video than I originally intended, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. Itʻs going to be packed full of tips and tricks, including tips for prepping garden beds and starting seeds. Other than that, we're working on producing videos every week to help you find success on the homestead. We have a few homestead tours in the works. We're going to dive deeper into Off Grid Income Ideas AND we're going to teach you how to grow plants...lots of them!! So keep your eye on that Youtube channel. Are there any topics you'd like me to cover in my videos? As email insiders you can help steer my content so that I cover things you want to be covered. Reply to this email with your video idea and maybe I can fit it in to be released as early as next Month! A Hui Hou!!
|
Homesteadinʻ Hawaii
November In The Tropical Garden Homesteadinʻ Hawaii The Abundance of November The abundance of the garden here in Hawaii never seems to stop. Here we are, deep into fall and the garden is filled with squash, beans, chard, kale, green onions, pac choi, kalo, sweet potato, and SO many other crops. But how do you get a garden started? It's really not that hard. Just play the long game. In year 1, you can prepare your soil by smothering the ground with mulch and growing cover crops. While you...
September In The Tropical Garden Homesteadinʻ Hawaii Starting A Garden When All You Have Is Rock The question I get asked most has to be this one, "How do you start a garden when all you have is rock?" I figure that I may as well take a moment and try and explain how to do it. You see, much of Hawaii Island has shallow soils, in fact, a lot of it is just rock. (If you're one of those blessed by soil, you can snicker and move on) So how do you grow in soils that are so rocky? There are a few...
September In The Tropical Garden Homesteadinʻ Hawaii Cool Season Crops are IN this Time of Year You may not think Hawaii has seasons, but it does. The daylight hours are getting shorter, rains are picking up and the temperature is just a little bit cooler.Last month I mentioned you could start some cool season annuals such as beans, peas, Kale, chard, and more.Now is an even BETTER time to do it. So start sowing some seeds.Hawaii Seed Growers Network is a great place to find locally adapted...