La’alo St. Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii Aka Little Manila
Thursday, March-25th amid Covid-19 quarantine. I have finally gotten the drive, desire and time to sit down and write the things I have been meaning to say.
Since I have not had to go to work since the 17th of March, I have been spending my days out in the field working the ground. Mike, my previous boss from when I lived in Lahaina 7 years ago has recognized and allowed me to pursue my passion in horticulture by working with plants utilizing his land, and allowing me to develop a small nursery on his property up in Launiopoko , a suburb of Lahaina.
In this Blog I will try to share the knowledge I have come across, while living on an island and working on different projects. Some of the things I will share are dreams that I hope will be manifested into reality. Some ideas may never see the light of day but I am willing to live with that. Since I have gained the permission to work a small plot of land on Michaels property, I have begun by tilling the soil and immediately I gained access to an awfully lot of Plumeria tree cuttings.
Plumeria is a plant that grows in extreme temperatures with climates like Launiopoko where rambunctious, strong winds and extremely hot temperatures make it very challenging for plants to thrive. (Plumeria flowers are very easy to draw with latte art, something I learned working here as a barista)
For the past few days prior to today, I have been working the field digging holes, transporting different plants to Launiopoko from the other side of the island, and planting. Interchangeably we have been using my wife’s car the Audi A3 wagon, or my own Subaru Outback, which has been serving us like champ since our arrival back in October 17th.
On the days I am out in the field plowing the ground I think to myself the things I would later like to voice, and how I would like to voice my concerns and / or quandaries. However there is always the context in which things have taken place, and in my personal opinion context makes the case.
Therefor any case presented must have the right context and maybe my stories are long but the context is right, I must say.
It has been five months and a week since our arrival on the island, time flies here on paradise. Time flies in general, but here it seems to move extra quickly. In these past months me and my wife have bonded ever more so, we both had our birthdays and our wedding together bare foot in metaphor (which is more scary in this day and age is it not?) We recently had our three year anniversary since the day we met, and it is an important day for us because things have moved quickly since then. We had agreed on spending our Sunday in a celebratory recreational manner but also on the same day I found a “Facebook-Marketplace” post about free Aloe Vera plants. So then we spent the entire Sunday salvaging and planting Aloe, a total of three carloads. It was a splendid day indeed.
The next day, same thing repeated over again. The neighbors of the folks who were giving away Aloe had a huge pile of trimmings from their “Song of India” plants. Two trips and I spent the entire afternoon yesterday planting to propagate those cuttings. And then again today we went and got Papaya saplings and found folks trimming Plumeria, sending us on another harvesting trip to get the cuttings that will get planted tomorrow.
“Why all this?” you may ask. And you would be right in doing so. See trimmings for plants like Plumeria are equivalent to new plants as the branched produce new roots and begin to grow again over time with care and attention. Nurture is what I plan to do for the next several years, until the plants are big enough to be sold.
Art 