6 years on 0.6 acres

6 Years on 0.6 acres

In Maryland I progressed through the history of gardening ideas from the Victory gardens of my grandparents, in something of a revival today with several twists, through organic, to polyculture, and intensive rotational companion planted urban farming on an acre.  Arriving at permaculture (growing perennial and woody plants for food to reduce resource requirements and soil disturbance) and the related edible landscaping (intermixing edibles throughout the entire landscape) by way of xeriscaping (focusing on native or ecologically appropriate plants to reduce water, pesticide and fertilizer applications).  Finally arriving at regenerative agriculture and the idea of improving or creating a soil ecology that supports the plants with such diversity and biological activity there is not room for disease or pests.  This had spawned the need for garden planning software that incorporated basic facts about fruits, vegetables, and other plants; the ability to map out the beds; and record a rotational plan of multiple species in each bed over time to maximize soil improvement, companion planting and the needs and benefits of each preceding and following species.  Every seed seller seemed to offer some version of online planning tool with maps and spreadsheets and basic plant needs database.

My own rotational plan, which I did not have time to implement before we moved to Oahu, grew to include the entire yard in a sort of rotational edible regenerative landscaping with permaculture anchors in the middle of the individual beds.  I started with the common rectangular organic garden plot, composting on sections for a season or a year, growing cover crops and dumping the neighbors' leaves to over winter, and rotating my plant families one or two squares sideways each year.

It was great for the first two years, mainly because the previous owners had doused the yard with pesticides and the critters had not yet figured out we had a buffet laid out.  Once they clued in, rotation and composting did not help.  In a few more years, maybe even a decade, the things that ate the pests would have turned up in sufficient numbers to keep things on an even keel of moderate productivity.  We had increasing evidence of moles and by the time we moved at least 3 species of snakes each represented by multiple individuals as well as a hawk who would periodically swoop down from the silver maples for something  But my garden burned through the compost as fast as I could produce it and the traditional wisdom of digging in organic amendments to improve the soils just seemed to create concrete when it rained.

Once I had children who could toddle and feed themselves, planting perennial fruit plants became a necessity, as well as removing anything potentially poisonous.  Again, lesson not learned, I pulled out my mother's 30+ year old organic gardening handbook and put the raspberry canes along one wall of the garden (constructed out of green plastic netting stapled to stakes) and moved the 2 roses the owners had planted previously on another "wall".  Well, the raspberries became a haven for oak and maple seedlings and wasp nests and we could not properly mow the grass in the vicinity due to all the stems and the fencing.  They also did not spread as promised to create the desired garden fenceline.  Last year I finally dumped extra wood mulch on them after cutting them back pretty severely and framed the bed with quarters of tree stumps taken from three rotten cherries in the front yard, and the raspberries took off like crazy things and bore 3 rounds of fruit, the last one late in the fall.  Mom's organic garden handbook did not approve of wood mulch, considering it the evil counterpart of horticultural garden beds and fussy over application of pesticides.  It would rob the soil of nitrogen, the heat of its decomposition would burn the fragile stem bases of the plants.  The material itself would contaminate my nice organic soil with pesticides and heavy metals and god-knows-what-else.  And it would house pests. Well, the leaves were teaming with pests unless I dumped them several feet thick which compacted into primitive wallboard the first year and would grudgingly be beautifully crumbly the second year, but teaming with grubs.  At the end of the summer, not even 3 months after application, the wood mulch had some grubs, yes, but it was teeming with a variety of everything else including a mouse family and several salamanders.

I have since read Anna Hess' The Ultimate Guide to Soil, in which she not only praises all woody plant material as the best for building good garden soil, but includes paper products, particularly cardboard, in that group.  Corrugated cardboard as the basis of "kill mulch" is her favorite thing ever for maintaining no till landscapes.  She also adores trunk pieces as bed frames, as I did in desperation, because she has found that they encourage root growth and soil organisms in their vicinity.  She and her husband have a farm in the Pacific northwest, and it appears they rotate crops around the entire multi-acre property, including green manure and cover crops in their rotation.  Which was my ultimate decision for the Maryland property and my starting point for any Oahu property.  They also run their chickens across the beds in tractors.  Oahu has a wild bird variety called "jungle fowl"  which bear a striking resemblance to domestic chickens.  I am trying to figure out how to selectively encourage them in the yard when I need them.  And the legality of stewing them... Dude! free chicken EVERYWHERE!

How to build the sustainable homestead on <4000 square feet

So the first issue to deal with in Hawaii, particularly on Oahu, is the size of the lots which are measured in square feet, not acres.  Houses are close together, lots are small, most utilities are buried, and there are additional building construction factors required in Hawaii to counter the tendency towards termite infestations which reduce the available area for food production (French drained gravel barrier where no plant shall live surrounding the house, concrete lanai surrounding that and a perimeter of in-ground pesticide-dosing structures to discourage termites from approaching).

Driving through Kailua and Kaneohe I adore the walled homes with the metal panels, embossed gates, and stucco bas-relief nature scenes.  The permaculture and regenerative agriculture plans for multi-crop and livestock field rotation still dance in my head. As does the desire for lazy compost in-place in raised beds  (Raised Bed Pinterest board).  Land here comes in such compact parcels it seems a waste to compost in space other than that used for planting.  Since  we will most likely have to rent for awhile,  my garden will start in pots anyway.  So why not build raised beds from found materials, composting in place?  Build one bed at a time.  Make them crafts with collage of found materials on the outside (Mosaics Pinterest board). And big enough for a chicken run on top (Keeping Chickens Pinterest board).  With seating on one side and small trees, shrubs, and ground cover on the other (Tropical Fruit Guild Pinterest board).  The yard designed so that the laundry hangs (Fancy Laundry Pinterest board) in dappled sun and dried by breezes scented from the plants with vegetable and structural screening from the neighbors (Trellis & Screens Pinterest board).

Permaculture and tropical agroforestry websites always mention banana circles / guilds.  The basic idea is to dig a pit for compost, fill it, mulch it, and plant banana and suitable companion plants around the outside edge.  They don't say this, but banana is one of those herbaceous plants that all up and die around the same time, coconut does the same thing, and you should not plant banana or coconut again at the same spot where a clump died.  So the compost circle is also setting you up to plant something else biggish in the center of the former banana circle in the future.  I would modify this planting plan by putting our mele kalikimaka mango in the ground, with a 1-2 foot wide ring of potential compost buried at the drip line and mulched. Once that is a bit decomposed, plant it with pineapple tops spaced 2-3 feet apart and lemongrass in between and slightly in front of the pineapple.  Then trench another compost ring around that, and eventually plant alternating papaya and banana with ginger, turmeric, galangal, and cardamom in between.  The pineapple will take 2-3 years to grow fruit, once the fruit has grown the main plant may die but it will also sprout side plants which can then be transplanted to the papaya/banana ring.  Eventually the trunk of the mango will fill in the space where the old pineapple were, which have long since composted themselves in place.  Banana and papaya are perennial but they are herbaceous so they only last for 5-10 years.  The trenched compost keeps growing outward in rings of time as the mango and companion plants mature.  The coconut would be planted in a moon shaped bed on the southside of the maximum canopy size of the mango and eventually the two beds will grow together as the kids' desire to run wild in the backyard fades.

The same thing can be done with an avocado.  But that one might start as a banana circle

Papaya  https://www.google.com/search?q=papaya+roots&oq=papaya+roots&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.4696j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Let's take a look at our planning resources, shall we?

The Oʻahu Master Gardener Program through University of Hawai'i at Manoa, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) Cooperative Extension Service

Take out the concrete parking areas and put in permeable pavers with ground cover planted between (Permeable Pavers Pinterest board).  How to maximize onsite groundwater recharge and measure it?