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The garden

When we applied for this sit, they were much more concerned with the garden than they were with the pets!  And now I know why!  I have never seen so many potted plants outside of a garden centre.  They are all the way around the outside of the house.  From my current seat on the Lanaii, there are 42.  Then they line both sides of the stairs going to the front yard (about a dozen more), in front of the garage, under the banana trees by the side yard, under the back deck (another 143, and along the lava rock wall and walkway going across the back yard.  Plus a half dozen gigantic pots on the top deck.  At least there aren’t any inside! 

    

   

   

There is a tiny circular lawn that needs weekly mowing, but first we have to rake up all the kukui nuts (candlenuts), plus all the branches and big leaves from the giant tree growing in the side yard.  The nuts can be pressed to make an oil which is supposed to be used as lamp oil or as a moisturizer to sooth skin, or polished for making leis.  One of those cure-all solutions for every skin condition known, which means I have to try it!  When I asked the homeowner where I should get some, she said just ask the neighbour for some – he collects all the nuts from their tree to make it.  So next step is to figure out which neighbour it is, and go over and introduce myself.  (ps, Roger did give me a basic lesson how to make it, so I went at some nuts with a hammer, and left the nut part in a glass container out in the sun.  5 days later - no oil yet.  I gave up, and bought a bottle from the farmer's market instead.)

They have an avocado tree (no fruit yet), a mango tree (second set of fruit looking good but not ripe until later), and several banana plants (lots of little green bananas, and some yellow ones on the neighbour’s tree which hangs over the fence line…  does that make them fair game???  PS YES THEY WERE FAIR GAME – AND DELICIOUS!!!), plus lots of herbs and a small raised bed with vegetables which are already growing like crazy even though they were just put in a week ago (some of the string beans look almost ready to eat!).  Most of the potted plants are succulents, which are easy to care for.  However, mixed in are ferns, peace lilies, poinsettias, a lovely orchid, a bunch of stuff that I know we have at home as houseplants, some variety of milkweed with only 2 leaves left on it which already has a Monarch chrysalis attached to the side of the pot, something that looks like polka dotted begonias on steroids, and countless things I can’t even name!  As well there are flowers planted right in the ground, like the towering hibiscus plants in a variety of colours, and an amazing coral flower called a Crown of Thorns, which has the most wicked looking stems I have ever seen.

    

There is an irrigation system as well, which waters the flowers planted in the garden and the raised bed with the new vegetables.

I have been told they know some of the plants will die, especially ones which were just recent cuttings.  Hopefully I won’t kill anything expensive!  Thank goodness they have a moisture meter, to help me see which pots need watering, since I have to do the rounds every 2^nd day, except for the ones that are twice a week and the ones that don’t need much and the ones that have to really dry out.  Simple, right?

Gardening duties

The homeowners were very concerned about the gardening, and wanted to make sure the plants were watered, but not too much!  So every couple of days I had to go round and check them – all 200ish of them.  Fine.  Except for the ones that shouldn’t be watered hardly at all – like the orchids.  And the native ones (not that I have any idea what plants are native to Hawaii!)  And the succulents (which at least I can identify as all the ones that have thick waxy leaves, or spikes, or otherwise the appearance of a cactus.)  

Then they said they wanted the plants fertilized with miracle grow weekly – at least they had a hose attachment!  They wanted the pots to have a granular fertilizer (but didn’t say how often or when, only said that the ones underneath the back deck didn’t need any.) It was just the plants and trees planted in the ground to be fertilized in with the hose.   (ps the walk-through tour was done on the fly, with only very basic commentary given on which ones needed a lot and which ones needed to completely dry out, and Ann said she just goes by instinct and doesn’t have any real idea of how much water or how often.  So helpful, lol)

Then they said they sprayed all the plants every week for bugs!!!  Ugh.  It took hours, with both of us working at it.  At least they softened up on that over the next couple of days, and said just do it once more before they get home. 

Just when I thought I had everything under control, I checked the veggies and saw big holes eaten in the cauliflower leaves!  CATERPILLARS!!!  I managed to scrape off 5 of the little monsters and squish them.  But then I saw a ton of eggs all down in the heart of the plant.  So Neem spray to the rescue, after putting on gloves and squishing everything I could reach.  Then I checked the veggies in the pots in the back, and saw what looked like a thousand eggs on the central leaf of another plant that looked similar to the cauliflower.  Ick!  Squish and spray.  I did that 2 days in a row, and sprayed down all the other veggies at the same time (there were likely 5 different kinds of insects eating everything there...  I guess there is a free lunch after all...)  Hopefully they (meaning the plants, not the bugs) all survive the time with me...

(We have already been asked to come back in November and stay for 2 months ish …  Randy has doubts just because of the amount of work expectations with the garden …  but really the homeowners may arrive home to find we haven't done anythng correctly)