Limahuli Gardening

This morning I volunteered working in the forest garden at Limahuli, the north shore gardens of the National Tropical Botanical Garden. From 8 to noon I worked with the gardener responsible for the forest garden up in the Limahuli valley, prominently flanked by Makana mountains, a.k.a. "Bali Hai" the fictional setting of the musical South Pacific which was filmed in this area and features these dramatic mountains.

Much of the morning we cut down and ripped out invasive trees, hauling the branches out of the garden. The trees were not very large and easy to saw, but the hardest part was felling them without hitting any of the collection plants. Many neighboring plants were still immature, small, and not even staked. A few of these are endangered and if I recall correctly there are about fifty specimens remaining (in the world, not in the garden) so stepping on one of these or smashing it with a fallen branch was not an option. Next we did some weeding and ripping out a lot of ferns (even though native species they were overgrowing some parts of the garden and are not endangered) and ginger. Several times we were slammed by some serious rain as fronts moved through the valley, one downpour in particular was intense and we had to suspend work and take cover in the trees. With one area cleared of unwanted plants we then planted a tray full of new plantings carried up from the nursery below. With time to spare we weeded a different section of the garden and called it quits.

Heading up and on the return I got a personal tour by the gardener as we walked the full length of the gardens. The garden is all about preserving Hawaiian flora but does include a section of just invasive plants as an illustration of what they look like and how the forest looks once taken over (quite sparse). One never section of the garden is available to the public to take plant material so I grabbed some leaves of a tree related to the nettles said to make good tea.

In return for working today I have a free pass to see the garden any time and I plan to go photograph it on a sunny day. It was great to spend time out in the garden, learn about the plants, and just experience that place for several hours, not to mention the insider's tour.