Enjoy a slice of nature
By Noelle Chun
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Joe Mori tends to plants at Pearl City Urban Garden Center, which is paid for by the University of Hawai'i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser |
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| Textured plants, such as this lamb's ear, are part of the sensory garden. |
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| The animal garden offers plants with such names as cat's whiskers. |
- your slipper (so THAT'S where it went)
- Elvis
- a secret garden
The answer is c. Well, it might not be quite secret, but the Pearl City Urban Garden Center is one of Hawai'i's little-known wonders.
Sure, it has stretches of perfect green and exotic flowers, but here you'll also find a deliberately placed toilet, sink or a tunnel in the middle of the garden.
The objects are there for a reason. A portion of the 30-acre public garden is devoted to themes. The toilet and sink represent the bathroom in the home garden. The wire-and-screen tunnel, built for youngsters to scramble through, is part of a kids' garden.
Other themes include the animal garden — a plant collection with names such as leopard tree and cattails and a towering greenery in the shape of a giraffe.
A sensory garden touches people who are disabled. It features plants with color, scents, texture and geometric growth patterns, in a concrete bed at a height appropriate for wheelchairs.
The Pearl City Urban Garden Center is paid for by the University of Hawai'i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, although it relies largely on volunteer help. The goal of staff and volunteers is to provide innovative and diverse horticultural information to the gardening public.
It's a great place to go with your sweetie, strolling through arches and terraces of vines or sitting on shady park benches. Cross the plumeria garden, where staffers test the flowers' uses and you can enjoy the fragrances, from lemon to cinnamon.
Plan to spend about an hour there; the best time is in spring, but summer days find the place gorgeous.
Pearl City Urban Garden Center
- 9 a.m.-2 p.m weekdays
- 962 Second St., Pearl City (take the driveway at the diamondhead end of the Home Depot parking lot)
- Free
- 453-6050
