A well-designed landscape can transform your outdoor space into a tranquil oasis, an entertainment hub, or a natural wonderland. Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to renovate your existing landscape, a thoughtful and systematic approach is key to achieving your desired results. In this blog post, we’ll guide you through 11 essential steps to create a beautiful and functional…
Category: Gardening
How to care for water lilies.
Water lilies grow horizontally from a tuber, so the width of the container is more important than the depth. The ideal depth is two feet. Water lilies will grow well in Hawaii in water between 1ft and 3ft in depth. Water lilies are typically sold commercially in a black plastic pot that has no drainage holes. Water lilies will live…
How to grow Hawaiian Pink Ginger from flower
A super short informative video on propagating new ginger plants from a flower that has been on the mother plant for an extended time.
Let it Bee | Healthy Bees = Healthy Humans
For the past three years we have been living right near a huge honey bee hive. For two of these years we shared a common wall with the bees. Quite often the bees would find their way into our living area and we would catch the bee in a cup and put it back outside.
Ice Cream Bean – They are already growing – Update
Seedling update – Time passed… Two weeks. For the initial story click here. The ice cream bean trees are coming along nicely. It has been two weeks since they were planted. Even though this is Maui winter the little plants still want to live. I planted about 20 seeds in these pots and about half of them have already made…
Tabletop Water Garden Arrangement, Cute Easy and Affordable.
Looking for a sustainable easy to assemble tabletop arrangement that looks classy? Consider this for a Wedding, Baby shower, Birthday Party, Anniversary or Just because. To recreate this look you will need:
Swiss Made Perfection for your garden.
In 2002 I received my first “Felco 2” bypass pruners as a gift. I knew right away that these pruners and I would age gracefully together and still today, about 15 years later the Felco 2 is still my favorite pruner. They were such a smooth precise quality tool. As it turned out, they were designed for a larger hand.…
The Compost, To Sift or Not to Sift
When using store bought potting mix or store bought compost for potted plants I like to sift out the bits that are not all the way broken down or decomposed and any pebbles or large chunks of perlite. I will use this rough portion of the soil in the bottom of the pot. This way nothing goes to waste.
For the Love of Rats
First of all, I love rats! Rat are very smart nobody can argue that. And they are very cute too once you take away the negative stigma that has been attached to them. On Maui we have the most adorable rats. They are fast and agile fluffy little ninjas.
Display of Succulents started from Leaves
To view a brand new baby succulent emerge from a leaf is a very inspiring sight. It is also a great conversation piece. Many people are still intimidated by growing these exotic little plants. I get pure joy out of seeing people’s reaction the first time they see a plant come into existence from just a single leaf that was…
Fiskars SOFT Grip – Erika’s Garden Tool Tips!
A place I worked here on Maui provided the garden designers with some brand new Fiskars Softgrip Bypass Pruner (79436997J). They worked…but the quality of the cuts deteriorated quickly. Now to their defense I must say, Maui’s wet, salty air puts products of all sorts of qualities to the ultimate test. Still they should have held up better than they…
Good affordable all round garden pruning snips.
Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruning Snips work well on very fine stems and leaves. Look at them they are very pointy and sharp. If you get poked by them you will bleed. They ARE that sharp, so be careful. In addition to being sharp they are precise and sturdier than they look. If you are looking to cut through any kind of…
Protect Your Hands In the Garden.
If you want to be able to spend more time improving your garden it is important to protect your hands. I have tried many gloves over the years. I discovered the love of gardening when I was a child. Now nearly 4 decades later my love for plants is growing more and more everyday. Through the years I have worn…
The Amazing Ice Cream Bean
Two and a half years ago I bought an ice cream bean from the Whole Foods Market on Maui for a ridiculously high price ($9.99/lb) After enjoying this delicious fruit which tastes like vanilla ice cream with a texture similar to cotton candy, I planted the seeds in hopes to one day be able to casually graze on this fruit…
Erika’s Gardening Rant – Gardening is so fun and rewarding. The time to grow your own food is NOW!
Now? Did I say “Now”? I meant Yesterday! Did you ever notice that homeowners either have a collection of exotic fruit producing trees or they have a lawn. If you have a bunch of goats, grow some grass. But please it is time to grow Apples, Pears, Cherries or if you live in warmer climates Mangos, Papaya, Lychee, Avocados, Bananas…