HAWAI'I GARDENS
Winter winds and rain help rid gardens of pests
By Heidi Bornhorst
People who say we don't have seasonal changes in Hawai'i have not lived here long or been very observant in the garden or the larger landscape.
We do have winter, and it can be wet, windy and wild. It may be a drag if your house floods or if you have to drive in the soaked conditions, but the wind and rain refresh the garden and give it a good spring cleaning.
This is how we used to trim trees in the old days before the proliferation of chainsaws and crane trucks: We'd wait for the dead and diseased wood to blow down in a storm.
Rain washes the insects away, and wild winds blow them away.
Infested leaves are washed clean or stripped from the plants. All this helps knock back and wash away the pest insects that infest your plants.
One landscape trick is to remove and dispose of leaves that are infested with insects such as white flies, scales or aphids. By removing the entire pest "dinner plate," you eliminate a bunch of insects.
"Sanitation" is a technique that good gardeners and landscape maintenance professionals use to keep the garden pest-free and tidy. It's a good method for interior scaping, too. Take plants outside and blast them with the hose, set them in shade to drip dry, then return them to their spaces. Pests can really set in on plants that are forced to live in a dark room, cold dark office or an alternately hot and cold hotel function room.
Courtyards also can get a pest population established that is very difficult to eliminate. Once, a whole plumeria tree was removed to eliminate a horrible white-fly infestation.
I don't advocate removing plumerias (too many people do), but in a situation where workers continually are being coated with white flies and their residue, and trying to spray around working hours so as not to poison the staff, the best solution was to move the plumeria outside where the weather and natural predators could help control the white flies.
We should all look for the best, nontoxic, nonchemical ways to keep our gardens healthy and growing vigorously.
Invest in feeding the soil rather than chemicals. Think about it: If a chemical kills something, especially an insect, it can't possibly be good for you or your gardener, or our Islands, streams or oceans. Try to find a nonchemical, sustainable way to keep on growing.
Wiliwili tree in bloom
The native Hawaiian wiliwili tree blooms in the summer but is also very attractive this time of year.
Look into the dense green crown of leaves and you will see bright red and orange decorations hanging in the tree. These are the seeds, another great aspect of the tree. Wiliwili provide red ornaments for your winter garden.
You can plant the seeds and grow your own wiliwili. There are many other Erythrina around, but hardly anyone grows the native Hawaiian one. These beans are easy to grow from seeds. It is a beautiful, less-thirsty tree. You can make lei from the flowers or seeds, and the soft wood is useful. Surfboards, paipo boards and puppets have been made from the soft, buoyant wood.
Be the first in your neighborhood to plant a grove of Hawaiian wiliwili. Try to get all the assorted flower colors. They are in full leaf and bright seeds now. They'd make a gorgeous display, blooming in summer.
Wiliwili have bird-pollinated flowers in pastel colors: apricot, chartreuse, pale yellow and orange. Native birds used to pollinate them, but now that they are scarce other birds will visit the flowers, sip the copious nectar and add color to your garden.
Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant.
