Sunday, December 4, 2016

Huakailani Urban Garden & Composting

As you know, we received a $700.00 Kokua Hawaii  Gardening Grant for the school year.

 We are now all set to begin work on our new Kokua Urban Garden.

The project is to start a butterfly restoration project for the King Kamehameha Butterfly whose populations has been declining.  This project will be added to our already successful Monarch restoration project of 5 years. The King Kamehameha Butterfly is endemic to Hawaii and is the official state insect. This will be a great addition to our butterfly restoration work.

The grant allows each class - Malama, Lokahi, and Holomua  - to have their own section of the Huakailani Urban garden to plant, care for, maintain, and harvest. We will use our composted food (Bokashi and Worm Composting) to grow food; showing the full cycle of sustainability.

The girls will also learn how to "cook" using the urban garden's harvests for Urban Garden Luncheons to be held throughout the school year.

This week in Gardening Class - Sakura Group learned all about worm composting; while Himawari Group learned all about bokashi composting. On Friday, both groups created skits to teach each other about the type of compost learned about.

HIMAWARI GARDENING SCIENCE CLASS - What is Bokashi?

Himawari class learned all about Bokashi! After two Bokashi workshop days, the girls created a skit to teach Sakura all about Bokashi composting.








SAKURA GARDENING SCIENCE CLASS - What is Worm Composting?

Sakura class learned all about worms and worm composting. After two worm workshop days, the girls created a skit to teach Himawari all about worm composting.








Here is a video of the skits!  The girls loved their first gardening class and can't wait to get planting in the Urban Garden! https://vimeo.com/194308624


Mahalo to Uncle Rich (Thalia's Dad) for bringing in dirt. Below the girls are putting bokashi compost into the eco-planters before topping it off with a layer of dirt!








Mamaki plants have arrived!  It is the host plant for King Kamehameha butterflies to lay their eggs!  We hope to attract some butterflies soon!


 Our crown flower plant attracts Monarch butterflies daily!

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Do you know about Non-Source Point pollution?

Whether you have a stream running through your backyard, business, local school or park, protecting it is a good idea. Many property owners upstream may not realize that what they do on their land impacts other residents and water quality downstream. Every day pollutants such as trash, yard waste (e.g., grass clippings, leaves, prunings, or fruits), paint, construction debris (e.g., stockpiles of soil, sand, or gravel), used motor oil, fertilizers and pesticides, and dog waste reach our urban streams. Trash on stream banks are unsightly and unsanitary for humans and wildlife. Even organic materials such as yard waste are unacceptable to dump along streams banks. When these materials get into the stream cycle, they decompose and eliminate critical, life-giving oxygen from the water. As a result, streams become unsightly and emit foul odors.