Kona Coffee

Took a quick trip to Kona, visiting a coffee farm owned by a friend's friend and her husband. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but I do like coffee farms.

Flower & Fruit

This heliconia has finally bloomed!

Cherimoya is another funny looking fruit that tastes like...icecream?

Squash

We've been successful in growing squash in our backyard. It's going very strong despite the poor soil in our yard.

Broccoli

From my garden. The broccoli turned out to be very hard to take care of. It attracts too many bugs, cabbage butterflies being one of them. I probably wouldn't grow it without a net to cover the crop.

Jaboticaba?

Also called "Brazilian Grape Tree". The fruit grows right on the bark, and tastes like grapes. I freeze them and eat them like sorbet. Very refreshing.



Another good thing about the Jaboticaba I just found on Wikipedia is:

"Several potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory anti-cancer compounds have been isolated from the fruit."


I have one Jaboticaba tree in my yard, hoping it'll bear fruit in a couple of years.

First crop of the season

Here is what I got from my backyard today, and I'm proud of it! I learned a few tricks about growing tomatoes. Hoping to produce enough so I don't have to buy any tomatoes over the summer.

The leaves under the tomatoes are Komatsuna. Spinach like vegetable.

Avocados

We've found a place where we can pick avocados for free! There are two different kind available. Avocados are best ripen on the tree, so we usually pick ones on the ground before the wild pigs find them! Avocados can be $1 each even here in Hawaii, so getting them for free is a good thing!

What keeps me going these days

On the top is a breadfruit I got from a guy I ran into on the street. He was picking the fruits off a tall tree. After boiling it for 45 minutes, it tasted just like potatoes. I kept eating it for 3 days.

The 2nd is two kinds of tomatoes from my yard. Smaller varieties do better here as the beefy kind takes much longer to mature and easy prey to whatever....

Bird of Paradise

My bird is ready to fly! It's the Bird of Paradise plant I got 2 months ago. It's native to Africa and somewhat slow to grow. It takes 7 years to bloom from seed. They only sell young one at the nurseries. So one day I knocked on a stranger's door who had a beautiful bunch of these in his garden. He gave me a couple of them and asked nothing in return. The BOP does not like being moved much. I wasn't sure if they'd make it. I'm being blown away by its beauty. The perfect creation....

Ready to grow

Top: Cinnamon
Bottom: Giant Bird of Paradise

I dug 2x2 feet holes, added some chicken manure, lime powder (to neutralize the acidic soil), tree bark chips, black cinder, as well as some compost, and mixed them well. Digging a hole in the ground is the hardest part because here we have lava rocks wherever you put your shovel in. Some of them can be as big as a child's head!

We still have Tahitian Lime, Eureka Lemon and a tangerine tree to go. Because most fruit trees are expensive, I wanted to do it right.

Today's Catch

I bought a Cinnamon tree for $22. It's 5-feet tall, ready to go into the ground soon. Somebody gave me a cinnamon leaf last week, and I kept munching on it. It's addictive!

Walk in the Park

We went to a state park nearby.

Bottom: Blue Ginger

Radishes

We are enjoying our first crop! These radishes were pretty easy to grow. They're not my favourite veggies but they will do.

Citrus

Top: Tahitian Lime

Bottom: Eureka Lemon

Both plants will stay on the lanai for now until I figure out where they fit best in the yard.

Pineapple

A senior couple from Japan gave us a pineapple. It was juicy and sweet! We planted the top, expecting to harvest next year.

Avocado

We got 4 avocado trees from friends. They grow up to 65 feet tall (20m), so pruning is essential.

Growing food

We created a vegetable patch and planted seeds for lettuce and radish. It's easier to grow veggies in pots on the lanai, but these plants require more space to grow. Let's see what happens...

Plant Hunt

There was a small clump of wild Heliconia two blocks away and I wanted to grab some of them. They are too beautiful to be left uncared for. I dug out some this afternoon. I think it's called HELICONIA ROSTRATA (aka Hanging Lobster Claw).

Shopping for Plants

On the right is Red Heliconia. $5. It's already 4ft tall, supposedly will grow taller.

The next one in a pot is Giant Bird of Paradise. $10. I thought it was just a bigger version of Bird of Paradise but it's actually known as "White Bird of Paradise" with dark-colored Goth-looking flowers. I'll probably plant it on the front yard as part of hedges.

Anthuriums

Bought 4 of them for $15 at a garage sale. The white one attracted a reptile buddy.