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Tag Archives: gardens
Limahuli Garden and Preserve
I’m at my home away from home in Hanalei this week and wanted to share this lovely Orange hibiscus with you — it’s a very rare shade. I came across it on a walk through Limahuli Garden.
Limahuli Garden and Preserve is a beautiful and interesting place, set in a lush tropical valley on the north shore of the island of Kaua`i. In Hawaiian, the name Limahuli means “turning hands,” a phrase which recognizes the ancient Hawaiians who built agricultural terraces out of lava rock and planted taro, an important cultural food crop in the islands.
These and other plants that were significant to the early inhabitants, as well as native species, make up the Garden’s collections, as well as some invasive species that were introduced by modern man. Limahuli Stream, one of the last pristine waterways left in the Islands, provides a habitat for indigenous aquatic life.
Beyond the Garden is the Limahuli Preserve where conservationists and restoration biologists work to preserve species native to this region.
Limahuli Garden was selected by the American Horticultural Society as the best natural botanical garden in the United States for it’s spectacular environmental practices of water, soil, and rare plant conservation in an overall garden design. It’s a beautiful and inspiring place.
Grow Your Own Herbs
Does all of this spring weather have you itching to get out and do some gardening? Even though the weather may still be a little nippy for new plants to be outdoors, herb plants can be started indoors to be transplanted later. Pick out your seeds and follow the following steps to get your garden going.
Prep: Most herbs can be started indoors. They need 4-5 hours of direct sunlight a day. If were you are planning to plant doesn’t get that much sun, artificial lighting can fill the gap — either a grow light or a fluorescent bulb. Your seedlings need to be well watered and drained, so be sure to plant them in a pot with good drainage. Or poke holes in the bottom of an egg carton.
Plant: Fill your pots or egg cartons about 2/3 of the way up with a seed-starting mix soil. Sprinkle your seeds over the soil and the cover with more soil. Sow your seeds, and then sprinkle a layer of soil over them.
Water: For newly planted seeds, water from the bottom up by placing your pots in a tray with a few inches of water in the bottom and allow the water to be sucked up. Once the soil has stopped absorbing water, take the pots out of the tray; never let your plants sit in water for long or the roots will begin to rot. Once the seeds have started to germinate and you have some green sprouts, you can water from above.
Grow: Within a week to 10 days you will have sprouts.
Replant: If you are starting herbs indoors to be moved to an outdoor garden , you can replant them after a few weeks. Get the herbs used to being outdoors by moving the pots outside in a suitably sunny spot. After a week or so, you can plant them in the ground.
Harvest: Within a month most herbs will be ready to pick and eat. Harvest by pinching off as many leaves as you need and leaving the rest of the plant to flourish.
My Secret Place Revealed
Last week I showed you some spring pictures from my secret place where I go to rejuvenate and to get inspiration. Well the secret is now out, my special place is Filoli!
Filoli is a really beautiful country house set in 16 acres of gorgeous formal gardens surrounded by a large estate in Woodside, California, on the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Filoli was built in the early 1900s for Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn, prominent and wealthy San Franciscans who owned the Empire gold mine and the Spring Valley Water Company.
Bourn arrived at the unusual name Filoli by combining the first two letters from the key words of his credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”
The estate is now part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and open to the public. I like to go on walks through the gardens, which include a magnificent magnolia collection, a native plants garden, a camellias & citrus collection, a bonsai collection, an olive orchard and a gentlemen’s orchard which boasts the largest private collection of heirloom fruit in North America