Bob and Sunny Robello at plot #71
Last Sunday, November 28, 2010, our newest garden members, Bob and Sunny Robello, were busy preparing their plot for planting. I took the opportunity to ask Sunny a few questions and she graciously accommodated.
Sunny, I'm curious about why people garden. Why do you garden and what do you get out of it?
Bob and I garden because it is something we can do together, it provides us with a sense of accomplishment and working the soil seems to soothe the soul.
What are you planning to grow?
Our intention is to plant vegetables that we enjoy and that have a chance of flourishing in our area. We recently planted eggplant, tomatoes, spinach, manoa and mesculin lettuce. We intend to add brussel sprouts, green beans, swiss chard, snow peas, green onions, zucchini, taro, and herbs.
There is a long wait list of people wanting to get a plot. After putting in your application, how long did you have to wait and what did you have to do?
It took about seven months on the wait list to get a plot, and I attended every meeting and work day during that period.
I hear that that's about the average time. What's your background? Do you have a history of gardening?
My husband is local and our family lived in Honolulu until 1990 when we moved to the mainland to pursue career opportunities. While living in Oregon, my husband and I planted a one acre Pinot Noir Vineyard on our rural property near Salem. We sold our grapes to amateur winemakers, but we really enjoyed developing and maintaining that vineyard as well as a large garden plot and several marionberry vines.
How fascinating. I'm sure that it gave you lots of gardening experience and made you a lot of friends to boot. Now that you're back in Hawaii, what's next?
We moved back to Honolulu a little over a year ago, and live at the Diamond Head Ambassador Apartments just across Kapiolani Park from the community garden. Our goal with our garden is to time our planting so that we have some continuity with our harvestable produce.
I wish you both lots of success and happiness. And I'll be keeping an eye on your plot every time I'll walk past the compost area. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions.
Thank you so much for your interest.
Check out their newly-planted eggplant, tomatoes, spinach, manoa and mesculin lettuce
