As this hot summer draws to a close, it’s time to start planning your fall or winter garden. Within a few months you can get a bed ready even in seemingly impossible conditions where rocks dominate. With a little work you can turn an unlikely planting area into a healthy garden bed for late season planting.
Find a spot on your property where you can dig at least a few inches down before hitting solid rock. That will be your new garden bed. Use your rocks. Rake or collect all of them to the sides of your bed to make a border. Stack them if you have enough. You can lay a layer of newspaper or cardboard on the bed you have created after you loosen the soil a bit with a hoe or rake. Once you have put this compostable layer of material down, you can start piling up biomass for your raised bed.
The hugelkultur method discussed briefly in an earlier column is a mounding technique first developed in Germany. The base of this type of long-lasting raised bed is rotting logs. Other compostable material is piled on top of the logs then topped with a few inches of top soil and mulch before planting. This method can create a large, tall mound that will break down over a long period of time. With lots of microbial action taking place, the soil created can support healthy plants for many years with little or no supplemental fertility needed. Permaculture Research Institute has a few articles on building a hugelkultur on its website at permaculturenews.org. Go there and type hugelkultur into the search box.
If you want a smaller, less permanent bed, you can certainly achieve many of the positive results of a hugelkultur on a reduced scale. With newspaper or cardboard as your base, small branches and twigs can make up the next layer. The coarse woody layer will improve air circulation at the bottom of the pile avoiding compaction as you add more biomass. You can build the bed as high as you like, balancing the green and brown inputs as you would when layering an active compost pile. This should encourage lots of healthy microbial activity in your pile and good nourishment for your plants. Leaves, straw, shredded paper, dead plant material and wood chips are good brown (carbon) sources and can help the green (nitrogen) elements break down. Grass clippings, weeds (without seeds), spent flowers or plants, turned over sod, composted kitchen or green waste as well as manures all qualify as greens for your pile. At this point, you can cover the pile with newspaper if you like and let it sit.
County mulch can be added if you are willing to test it for fire ants before you leave the transfer area. Take some chopsticks coated with peanut butter, a broom and some reading material to the pickup area. Load as much mulch as you like and put some of the peanut buttered chopsticks in your load. Do some reading or listen to your favorite radio station for about a half hour. Check the chopsticks and if they have any ants on them, especially if they are small and red and fast moving, dump the load, sweep out your truck and leave. If they are clean, you are good to go. The mulch can be applied in the pile or on top once you have planted.
In a month or so, once the material has started to break down, you can top your pile with some soil and get ready to plant. Unless you have a good soil source on your property or have a friend or neighbor with fully composted material or deep soil to spare, you may want to purchase enough soil to put about 3 inches on top of your pile before planting. Several local businesses sell soil by the cubic yard and will deliver large loads if you need them. If your pile is small and you have access to a pickup truck you can probably purchase enough to cover your pile adequately. Check the soil products offered by Organic Matters Hawaii and Soil Plus on their websites. Both are locally owned, offer good products and can help you calculate how much soil you’ll need, based on your measurements..
Get your new bed started now and it will be ready to plant this fall or winter.
Tropical gardening helpline
Tara asks: I collect rain water on the steps to my house to water my plants. I have noticed some tiny shrimp-like critters that seem to be dead in the bottom of my collection bowls. What are they and will their presence affect the water or the plants I apply the water to?
Answer: These shrimp-like critters are actually called lawn shrimp or house hoppers. They often collect in outdoor containers during heavy rains and will sometimes appear in garages or swimming pools or even inside homes in very rainy weather.
The critters are the terrestrial amphipod, Talitroides sylvaticus. Most of the thousands of amphipod species live in marine environments. The terrestrial species require a moist environment to survive but cannot live in water for long.
They are about 1/3 inch long with a shiny gray-green sheen when alive. They inhabit shady damp landscape areas near damp soil and decaying organic, which they eat. They sometimes appear in enormous numbers, jumping around like fleas. They move by springing on their hind legs and often appear near homes after a heavy rain when their usual habitat becomes flooded. In areas that are too dry or in standing water they will die, turn orange and look kind of like tiny shrimp.
They are very common in warm climates and can become pests when they enter homes in large numbers. They cannot live in that environment, however, and they die quickly. They will not significantly affect the water on your steps unless you leave the dead ones in standing water for a while. If/when the water they are in smells bad, dump it out.
Email plant questions to konamg@ctahr.hawaii.edu for answers by certified master gardeners. Some questions will be chosen for inclusion in this column.
Diana Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant living on an organic farm in Captain Cook.
Gardening events
Sept. 6: Hamakua Harvest Farmers Market from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Honokaa. The opening of the new market features music by Denis Padilla and workshops for keiki and adults. More information is available at hamakuaharvest.org.
Farmers markets
Wednesday: Hooulu Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay
Wednesday: Sunset Farmers Market, 2 p.m. to sunset at the north makai corner of the Kmart parking lot
Saturday: Keauhou Farmers Market, 8 a.m. to noon at Keauhou Shopping Center
Sunday: South Kona Green Market, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook
Monday to Saturday: U-Pick greens and produce, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tropical Edibles Nursery in Captain Cook
Plant advice lines
Anytime: konamg@ctahr.hawaii.edu
Thursday: 9 a.m. to noon at UH Cooperative Extension Service in Kainaliu, 322-4892.
Monday, Tuesday and Friday: 9 a.m. to noon at UH CES at Komohana in Hilo, 981-5199 or himga@hawaii.edu.