Ke Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center

On July 22nd, CWD, The Water Dept, Voluntourism and Whole Foods came together to begin a garden for the Homeless Resource Center of Maui.  Nearly 1600 people go through here each year, and so I really can't think of a site that could benefit more from a garden.  The vision here is to really green the entire property- planting natives, windbreaks, fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and ornamentals all throughout the property- with the main-focused garden being a site that was given to us to use (which unfortunately was an old sand-filled drainage ditch).   The goal for this garden is to not only have a vegetable and herb area of the garden that can help to feed the residents, but also to plant a variety of plants and include landscape features that lend themselves to new job creation for those in need.  I figured that each new element that I put into the garden could actually be an educational component in and of itself.  For example- the irrigation- we can teach others how to properly install an irrigation system into a garden, and show a few examples of different systems at work.  We can have a rock-wall building workshop on site, where we install the stairways into the garden and teach rock-building skills to the residents.  The fruit trees, spices, and herbs can all be used to make value added products- and so we hope to get the folks from Hana Farms out for a day to teach the art of making products from the land. (They specialize in Banana bread, jams, jelly's, hot sauce, ice-cream, spice rubs, and candy's).  The native garden has plants that can be used for lei making, jewelry making, tapa dying, basket-weaving and seed saving.  It is an ambitious vision- but I have felt led every step of the way.

This project brought out some of the angels living on Maui.  Alex Beers answered a Craigslist ad of mine, and came out with a huge load of compost to donate to the site, unloaded it by the shovelfull, and then showed up the next day to work an entire 8 hour day with me- winning himself the angel-of-the-day award!  Kim his son Kai from Maluhia trucking donated countless hours of backhoe work and trucking in of materials.  Jay Carpio from Holon donated 2 days of free labor into installing the fence that we got from Valley Isle Fencing.  Vince Mina and Ricky Apana donated soil amendments  , BioChar and countless hours of consulting free of charge, Voluntourism did hours of free outreach and brought us 14 volunteers for the day all extremely skilled and dedicated.  An extra special thank you to the generous spirits that gave above and beyond for this project: Lehuahana, Waylon Rich, Jeremiah Baca, Tribe, Amber Love, Mary Bailey, Eco-Island Supply, Alex Beers, Lehn Huff, Maile and Jay Carpio and family and Whole Foods market.  Thank you for all being such breathtaking reminders of the way that the divine subtly and gracefully moves through us~ and for reminding me that it takes a TRIBE to raise a garden.  Mahalo nui loa

Lehn Huff (aka the Fairy God-mother of the Maui School Gardens) Welcomed everyone to the workday with a smile, and a lot of confidentiality wavers to sign :)

Soil, or rather the lack there-of, had been our most limiting factor in this garden.  I don't want to lie and pretend that this garden was all fairies and rainbows...as I think that it is important to talk about the difficulties so that other people dealing with similar projects might be able to learn from it.  We had 120 yards of good top-soil/compost mix promised to us a month before the workday, only to have it fall through less than a week before go-time.  Who knew that on a tropical island, good soil would be so hard to come by.  But it is.  WIth a day to spare we got a few loads of dirt delivered, and amended it with compost donated by Alex Beers, Bio Char from Vince Mina and Ricky Apana, Sea-crop, Worm Castings, gypsum and seaweed extract.  Ideally we would have amended the pile of dirt for at least a month, but time was limited and we needed planting mix for the workday...We continued soil mixing on the day of the workday, and had to transport loads to our pre-dug holes via wheelbarrow.  Moving forward, my focus for the next few months is on soil building- as soil is the very foundation of the garden....and our plants are only as healthy as our soil.  

Volunteers begin planting the natives on the native hillside. 

The amazing Jeremiah Baca...who graciously jumped into a leadership role, worked so hard the whole day through, and did so the entire day long with a smile.  

Our Angel Alex Beers and Jeremiah Baca planting natives on the hillside. 

Meghan Sweet, Director at Voluntourism showed her support with her partner Dori.  They worked on irrigation installation and planting dozens of natives throughout the afternoon. 

It's coming along.  The Lauhala plant getting it's final top dressing of soil.  It was chosen as it is traditionally used for basketweaving.  The goal here is to provide as many outlets as possible for job-creation, nourishment and inspiration through the garden. 

Shannon Carpio (Maile's daughter) waters in all of the new plantings.

Tricia and Julia fill buckets of our planting mix...

Rebekah lays out the plants to be planted

Matt Lane stopped by with Paul Hunting (Head of the CDC), and Dr Pang to show them the site, and plant a few banana trees before moving along to show them the next proposed garden sites.  This project was made possible through a grant given through the CDC called Communities Putting Prevention to Work.  THe mission is to reach out to 'at risk' communities throughout Maui County (who are either low-income, or have high rates of heart-disease and obesity etc...), and to get them engaged in planting a community garden which provides them local-organic food, gets communities active, and where we help to educate people about their food choices.  It's wonderful to see that the Center for Disease control is being proactive about holistic health- and understanding just how important nutrition is to long-term health.  

The natives hillside fills in

Tricia, Jeffrey and Alex....angels in the dust

Taking a much needed lunch break- thanks to Whole Foods for not only sending us such wonderful support, but also for nourishing us throughout the day. 

Matt Lane stopped by with the head of the CDC- Paul Hunting, Dr Pang, and a group of others who are working under the CDC grant- Communities Putting Prevention to Work

The next thing needing planting is Alex

It takes a tribe to raise a garden

Such beautiful bright souls- THank you all for coming out

Residents from the Homeless Resource Center helped to lend a hand in the courtyard 

The beautiful Elyse from Whole Foods helped to lead the Courtyard-Greening Team along with Lehuahana (standing in the backround talking with CWD director Rae Chandler and Maile Carpio) They tilled up the old soil, and removed wheelbarrows full of old roots and grasses, and planted over a hundred natives throughout the area, and prepped the bottom for a SYNlawn to be installed later this week. 

Jeremiah's lovely mother and father came out to lend a hand on their vacation...

Always working with a beaming bright smile

Dori lends a hand planting natives, and works with Cole installing irrigation

Waylon Rich and Jeffrey working hard until the end

Last natives going in for the day

THe last ones standing...dirty, nourished, and ready for a long-hot-shower.  THank you all so so much for sticking it out until the end, you make this project possible through your dedication, love and big-beautiful hearts.  

Some of the girls who live at the Resource Center came out to check on the work, and they reaaally wanted to lend a hand 

Waylon and Jeremiah led the tree planting station- we got nearly 30 bananas and 15 papayas and 10 lilikoi in the ground that day!

The girls help me put in irrigation- showing them the way that we install the 'spaghetti's' and emitters so that we have drip going to each of our natives

The Greenhouse

We have been gifted a beautiful Greenhouse space to use on Omaopio Rd in Kula by an amazing man named Raj Schoor and his son Ami.  Raj is a healer among other things, and has a line of medicinals as well as the infamous Kona Red- a super-antioxidant rich drink made from the coffee cherry.  Raj is a healer in the truest sense of the word, he opens his doors every Tuesday and Thursday from 1pm until dark...open to the public- all by donation and he sees dozens of clients daily.  He shares the same generous spirit when it comes to the gardens project.  He just wants to green this island.  He wants to make organic-locally-grown nutrient rich food available to everyone on the island, and wants to do so without charging a penny.   Just when we thought that there could not be another heart of gold so pure- we were contacted by a man named Paris Nabavi, owner of Cilantros in Lahaina, who heard about the School Garden Project, and wanted to offer to be the seed benefactor for all of our school gardens on the island so that we always had access to good-organic seed varieties.  We are so blessed to have had such kind-generous people come into this project.  And, in honor of paying their kindness forward we now give away 500 free food-starts every month to all of our volunteers.  Because of Paris Nabavi, Raj and Ami Schoor and all of our amazing volunteers we are able to literally start thousands of plant starts each week that will go out into the schools, low-income communities, and home gardens throughout this amazing island.  Mahalo nui loa for everyone who has made this possible.

Paris Nabavi from Cilantros - our angel seed benefactor for all of the school and low income gardens on the island- Mahalo nui loa Paris!!!

Giving a dose of BMW (Beneficial Mineral Water) to the plants

Our amazing volunteers: Amber, Heidi and Meghan at the propagation Station

Bruno from Eco Island Supply in Haiku surprised us with  a compost tea brewer, a sample of IMO's (Indigenous Microorganisms) and Humus at the greenhouse.  So grateful for the generosity of our neighbors.  

Steve and Lehua have been some of our most dedicated volunteers showing up week after week with knowledge, a smile, plant starts and cuttings to share, and an amazing willingness to help support this project.  I am so grateful for you both!  Mahalo for all of your dedication and love that you have so generously given to this project. 

Alex working hard at our pot cleaning station.  We use a lot of donated pots, and this is one station that I find to be really important in keeping everything clean and hygienic and not spreading disease or fungus to other plants through the pots.  We use a cleaning mix right now that has either 1 part bleach to 10 parts water, or a hydrogen peroxide mix.  We are testing out more natural methods of using IMO's and Lacto Bactilis and Grape Seed Extract as a cleaning agent.  Let me know if anyone has any success using a natural product. 

Waylon and Bruno starting our terracing out front.  The vision here is that we can get some root stock, and seeding plants started outside that we can consistantly be able to take cuttings of, while intermixing vegetables and herbs that can be used for our stone soup.  

The Beautiful Chrissy Kapoor helping to weed and plant up our walk-in to the greenhouse. It is so wonderful to have Chrissy's calm centering energy at the greenhouse.  She is a phenomenal yoga instructor at the Wailuku yoga studio- and we hope to begin doing a 20 minute yoga session with her after our workdsays each Wednesday at the Greenhouse. 

The terrace plantings begin....lemongrass, basil, beneficial flowers, comfrey, pidgeon pea,  papaya, rosemary and thyme go in first.

All of our greenhouse garden goddesses starting new seeds and starts

Working with a smile

Julia from the Ritz Carlton came to volunteer- and share her green-thumb with us this week

We found a group of kittens in the compost pile

In good hands

We are working with donated dirt- and unfortunately it is pretty bad quality material ...but beggars can't be choosers...so we started amending it by small loads today with the Kona Red Compost which is just teaming with mycorhizal and beneficial microorganisms.  We will also begin weekly sprays of compost tea and worm castings until we bring  life back into this soil. 

This week we are planting a garden at the homeless Resource Center, and the site needs a miracle.  Literally we are creating a garden in an old drainage ditch full of sand.  There is NO soil- and so I gathered together our amazing volunteers to hold intention and put some hope and love into our plants that will be planted into the grounds of the Resource Center.  Every little bit of love helps.  

Lokelani Middle Schools 2nd Work Day

Casey painting with one of the students of Kihei school- she was the most amazing volunteer of the day! 

I did a demo on cover-cropping with Nitrogen fixers and we talked about the difference between covercrops, nitrogen fixers, and green manures- and taught about how rhizobium bacteria attaches itself to the roots of (in this case) Bush beans and soy beans and converts atmospheric Nitrogen into usable nitrogen for the plants.

The beginnings of the mural

Cleaning up the Hawaiian Studies area- cleared a dumptruck full of invasives, opened up beds, prepared an area for an aquaponics set up, and painted a mural on the old peeling tool shed.  

Cleaned old an old bed covered in weeds outside the Hawaiian Studies Building

We planted sensual plants and herbs next to the Special Ed Classroom...interesting textures, colors and smells for the kids to enjoy and explore

Future Farmers in the making...this girl was amazing

Watering in the new plants by the Special Ed Classroom 

Kathy and Kirk from South Maui School Gardens Project

The completed Mural..with layers of work done by the Kihei Elementary students and Casey Lee Wanlass. Mahalo Casey for all of your hard work and countless hours spent on site.

We were lucky to get Vince Mina from Maui BioChar on site to give Kirk and Nio a introduction to BioChar and IMO's.  What a blessing it is to have Vince on this island.  

Vince Mina shows us a sample of the BioChar with IMO's introduced