Posted on: Friday, October 25, 2002

Touch up a lawn with easy-care kauna'oa

By Heidi Bornhorst
Advertiser Garden Columnist

Q.All my Kaimuki neighbors have perfect lawn strips of manicured, chemicaled zoysia

grass. I don't have the time, and don't want to use chemicals or waste water. What can I plant instead? Is there something native Hawaiian that might do? I'm ashamed about my ugly kapakahi mixture of any-kine grass and weeds.

A. I saw a spot of bright gold in Kaimuki in a planting strip just the other day. It was kauna'oa, the lei of Lana'i. This is a parasitic plant, which grows on other plants. Grab some and put it on top of your present mix of grass and weeds in the lawn planting strip and water it. The kauna'oa should establish itself and you will have a pretty and very low-maintenance strip.

You see kauna'oa around Kaimuki and along the freeway. Mowing crews spread it, and you can grow it too. There is some along the Fifth Avenue on-ramp, and quite a bit on the slopes of the overpasses by the university on- and off-ramps to the freeway.

Nurseries are not carrying this yet, and we all as good consumers might encourage them to do so. Neighbor Island gardeners will find this in more abundance. There is lots on Lana'i and along the southern shores of Moloka'i. It is at Polihale on Kaua'i.

In bloom

We observed a gorgeous simple color combination in a city park along Kaimuki Avenue, near the high school. A very pale golden form of the golden trumpet tree (Tabebuia) was in bloom (somewhat of a surprise for this time of year). There is a mass of them along the street, and underneath is golden el dorado. This is an old-fashioned, tough and easy-to-maintain shrub. The plants are easily found in nurseries and are a cinch to maintain.

Mexican tarragon is just coming into bloom. It's nice to have herbs that give color. It has bright clusters of yellow blossoms that look like a single-petaled marigold (to which they are related). This is a simple plant to grow and a nice addition to our edible gardens.

Gardener's tip

Do you know what biodynamism is? This was explained to me recently by Kumu Moke Kim of Moloka'i when I smashed some insects on a native 'ohai and put them back on the plant. I had heard that this would help repel other insects. "That's an example of biodynamism," remarked Kumu Kim.

Weed Circle is pau

I got a call from Patsy Gibson, past president of the North Shore Outdoor Circle and one of many beautification volunteers of Hale'iwa Main Street. "Weed Circle is pau! It was a great community effort. We had soldiers, neighbors, city parks people, Waialua and Hale'iwa businesses all helping to plant and beautify this gateway to Hale'iwa. Now it will be up to all these groups and individuals to help maintain this place. It's a huge effort to maintain a garden of this scale."

Check out this lovely and revitalized gateway to Hale'iwa and the North Shore. Weed Circle is the big open roundabout as you enter Hale'iwa. More than 100 flowering trees were planted. Native Hawaiian hala makes a nice grove. Shrub and understory plants include kulu'i, 'ilima, 'akia and naupaka. "They all just look like sticks now," says Gibson. But with diligence by the community, this will be a beautiful park-like open space.

Heidi Bornhorst is director of Honolulu's botanical gardens. Submit questions to islandlife

@honoluluadvertiser.com or Island Life, The Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Letters may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.