Veronica (left) and Lisa by their delightful garden plot
Yesterday I had the great pleasure to meet Lisa Miller and her daughter Veronica Gibson at their intriguing garden plot. Lisa has been nominated for secretary of the DHCG Board of Directors and Veronica is the person responsible for setting up the Facebook site for Diamond Head Community Garden.
If you have a Facebook account, go to Diamond Head Community Garden. Click the "Like" icon.
Lisa and Veronica have worked their plot for 5 or 6 years and are presently growing a really impressive number of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and medicinal herbs, beginning with (hang on to your garden seat!)… apple bananas, red roses, loofah (yeah, really, like for scrubbing, but you can eat it too if you harvest it before it dries), fancy shamrock, rosemary, shampoo ginger, mamaki tea plant, carrots, lettuces, radishes, mustard greens, patchouli, hapuu fern….
Take a breath. There’s more.
… oregano, asparagus, ipu bottle gourds, vanilla orchid (never flowers..), habanero pepper, puakala (Hawaiian prickly poppy), laukahi (plantain), popolo berries, ma'o and native white hibiscuses, basil, cherry tomatoes, ....
If I didn’t have the excuse of being just a lowly beginner gardener, I would be feeling an acute inferiority complex coming up right now.
By the way, since Veronica took a Medicinal Herbs class, she would have been the one to add the interesting medicinal herbs, like mamaki tea, which is a sleepy-time tea, as well as, an antidepressant.
Read on and enjoy Lisa’s answers to the questions I emailed her.
How did you get into gardening? Did someone teach you?
I come from a family of florists. My great-grandmother started Flowers by Adelaide in La Jolla, CA (really expensive area north of San Diego) in the 1930's. My parents (Veronica's grandparents) own Motu Nui Landscaping on the Big Island. We both have worked for them many times in the past.
Why do you garden? What do you get from it?
I like the connection to nature and the Earth. It is a great stress reliever.
How often do you come to the garden?
Daily.
What is the best or most interesting thing you’ve ever grown?
Well, the loofahs are pretty interesting but someone has been stealing them :-( Our best crop has always been Lima beans. They were growing when we got our plot and we just save some to reseed every year. We also had tremendous success growing the native puakala poppy, we thought they'd be hard and delicate but they got huge and didn't die at the end of the season!
Do you actually cook and eat what you harvest?
Yes, though many things we grow aren't actually food crops. We use the loofah scrubbers, put awapuhi on our hair, etc.
If you could have it your way, how would you improve the garden?
Bigger plots!
Do you know of any interesting, funny, inspiring or curious things that have happened in the garden?
We have a catnip plant and have to put a wire cage all the way around and over it or the cats destroy it. Tux, the black and white cat, knows to come beg some from us when we are there.
My goodness, that would be like telling me, “Don’t eat that cookie!”
Thank you, Lisa, for taking the time to answer my questions. It’s so exciting to know about the wonderful contributions you and Veronica add to the garden. More Green Thumb Power to you!
And DHCG members, go vote for Lisa Miller next month!
Lisa holding up the loofah
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