mk30

wastewater specialist in training (back in school), art doodler, plant person, aspiring forest hag, living off-grid on hawai'i island. aloha 'aina!

this is my plant/gardening account. for other stuff, this is my 'general' account: [@mk30](https://tilde.zone/@mk30 )

website: https://kukso.space

Public Key

npub1f39r38cq95pjxhjk0d6nm7df5ltf8dh0vrlq765slxkcras4axus63mhn9

NIP-05 Address

mk30_at_regenerate.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsycj3cnuqz6qertet8kafalx56045nkmhkpls0d2g0ntvp7c27nwgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsh0mpva

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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Last Notes

2026-07-30 19:43:20 UTC

If your solar punk story doesn't have "solar panel cleaning", well you're missing out (in a tropical climate, the stuff on it is jungle gunk. In a dry climate, it would be dust. In a place that gets cold, you might be cleaning snow off it).
Pro-tip: do not use harsh chemicals or sharp brushes on solar panels. To clean the ones pictured below, I used water, simple green, and a sponge. If you can't get close to your panels, you can use one of those sponges on the end of an extender. You can also use a pressure washer.
Jungle gunk is very hardy, so I had to get it wet first, then spray with the simple green, then scrub a lot, with several rinse/scrub cycles. But the result was totally worth it! My friend reported much better performance after cleaning! 🧹🧽🚿
#solarpunk #offgrid #hawaii #JungleLife
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2026-06-21 09:18:19 UTC

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I started watching this, and then I got so confused. I realized that I didn't know whether they were talking about reality or about like, a though experiment. https://youtu.be/x4TdColoIu8

2026-06-20 17:48:10 UTC

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yea, i love it. for a while i was a little worried it wasn't going to make it, but it seems to be doing ok in its spot 🥰

2026-06-20 17:46:11 UTC

One of my favorite orchids is blooming right now. 🥰 I can see it from my desk. I'm glad that
I seem to have found a spot it likes - in the crook of an 'ohi'a tree. I've had succes with phalaenopsis up in the crooks of trees, so that their base is in shade, but the flower stalk can pop out into the clear area outside the tree/bush (presumably to be visible to pollinators).
#plants #flowers #orchids #bloomscrolling #hawaii #phalaenopsis
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2026-06-20 17:13:20 UTC

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sure enough.
i recently watched a zoom presentation from a bigwig microsoft AI guy and it was...definitely something: https://tilde.zone/@mk30/116653664147781176

2026-06-20 17:07:55 UTC

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i mean, print journalists get quotes wrong *all the time*, so it wouldn't surprise me.

2026-06-20 17:06:45 UTC

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iiiiinteresting...

2026-06-20 16:39:22 UTC

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he most certainly did say that: "“Biological limits are real, but digital potential is infinite. If we starve our data infrastructure of cooling resources just to sustain baseline human comfort, we are actively delaying the birth of a super-intelligence that could solve all of our resource problems in the first place." https://theprint.in/feature/jeff-bezos-water-consumption-amazon-ai-potential/2964266/

2026-06-04 18:39:48 UTC

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yes, they need to be planted.

2026-06-03 18:59:29 UTC

We've been having extremely wet weather and my lima beans are all wet and soggy on the vine. A bunch of them started sprouting in the pod, so I guess I gotta plant them!
#hawaii #beans #gardening #plants
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2026-05-08 00:50:35 UTC

friends, don't let anyone tell you that animals are dumb.
this ginormous cane toad found its way into my room and into the cats' water dish - apparently the only little pool of water it could find during a recent dry period.
it started coming back night after night.
at one point, i put on my garden gloves, put it in a bucket, and dumped it in my azolla pond outside.
the next day, it was back.
i put the cats' water dish up on a table next to my bed (these toads don't really hop up high).
the next night, i saw it near where the water dish used to be.
that toad was learning, thinking, strategizing, remembering, and being sneaky.
so yea, next time you read some news article that's like "can you believe it?? animals can remember things!!", just shake your head because animals HAVE to be smart and learn and remember where resources are in their environment if they want to survive. and not just resources - where the threats are, etc.

2026-04-24 22:56:26 UTC

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brilliant. I have cardamom growing, but it's never made any flowers or pods.

2026-04-22 19:58:56 UTC

On a recent walk in my neighborhood, I noticed these Hoya vines growing near someone's driveway. Luckily some of the flowers were near eye level, so I got a nice photo and even got to smell them (they smelled great!).
Hoya is one of those plant families I'm fascinated by, but also a bit scared of. There are many many many Hoya varieties in many shapes and sizes. You can only find them for sale rarely, and they don't always do well (I bought a Hoya "shooting stars" from Walmart once and it promptly died).
But on the other hand, it's a vine that can reproduce from cuttings, and I once saw an entire tree colonized by a single Hoya vine in someone's garden. Since we don't get frost, if you bring a powerful vine to your place, it can quickly get out of control and take over.
Currently I don't have any Hoya plants, and I don't know if there are any nurseries on the island that regularly supply them.
Thailand seems like a large supplier, and you can see examples of literally hundreds of Hoya on this thai supplier's site: https://www.hoyaplanter.com/2022/10/03/400-hoya-plant-varieties-in-thailand/
In my mind, hoyas are like hipster orchids: loads of varieties, many unique shapes and sizes, and much more difficult to find than orchids, unless you're in an area where hoyas come from (like Thailand).
Maybe one day I'll get one...a girl can dream 😌
#hoya #plants #gardening #hawaii #bloomscrolling #flowers
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2026-04-07 20:21:30 UTC

Land update:
Got rocks delivered: https://youtube.com/shorts/lxabq0Bd4Pc 32 tons of 2.5" base course.
Excavator came and spread rocks, but as you can see, it didn't go very far: https://youtube.com/shorts/udR2uNgPuF8 it did make a beautiful, wide driveway. Excavator person requested that I get 3 more loads of rocks.
My rock person delivered another 3 loads yesterday (51 tons of the same 2.5" base course), and this coming weekend, the excavator person will come back and spread it out. Photo below shows my current rock mountains.
#offgrid
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2026-03-20 18:29:21 UTC

very windy, but the sun is out, so into the garden i go. excavation hasn't happened yet because we've had so much rain and my excavator person is only available on the weekends. the good news is that this gives me more time to do some string trimmer work to make the to-excavate area extremely obvious, plus i got more flags to better mark the unusual polygon that will be cleared.
it's very muggy though, so it's time to be sweaty.
Also, I apparently still haven't figured out how to properly load the string trimmer. It goes for a little while, but when it's time to tap it to release more string, the string gets stuck and no more comes out. Time to try again. Luckily I still have the manual.
Edit: in related news, this banana I chopped and removed from the to-excavate area was not done! I put it down as mulch next to a malabar chestnut tree, and here it is putting out a stem (you can see it on the left)! After I took the pic, I dumped a bunch of soil on it. If you want to go, little friend, go!
#gardening #offgrid
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2026-03-11 02:31:10 UTC

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We're working really hard and definitely not just napping in the grass.
#cats #gardening #hawaii
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2026-03-11 02:21:35 UTC

A couple of outdoor cats hard at work in the garden 🌱🐈
#cats #gardening #hawaii
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2026-03-07 01:07:00 UTC

Fellow gardeners: how do you carry your phone around when you're listening to your music or stories in the garden?
I recently picked up this extremely stylish fanny pack at a rummage sale for $1. It's just big enough for my phone, so the phone doesn't move around in there. I use Bluetooth headphones too so that the plants don't get annoyed by my stories (they like it pretty quiet).
Anyway, I figured I'd share a photo of it before it gets all gardened up like everything else I have. 😅 As the saying goes: "all clothes eventually become garden clothes."
#gardening
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2026-02-26 20:56:10 UTC

There are some beautiful colors on this bamboo. I don't think its parent had this color. I don't know if it will maintain these colors farther up the stalk (I have other stalks from the same parent where the bottom of the stalk is striated like this but with green and yellow, but only at the base - farther up the stalk, it's just green), but this is still cool.
#bamboo #plants #gardening #hawaii
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2026-02-26 20:35:19 UTC

Having a non-rainy morning, so here are some photos from the garden:
1) dendrobium orchid with a lovely smell
2) speckled pigtail anthurium
3) tiggy the cat
4) purple spotted phalaenopsis orchid
#gardening #hawaii #plants #bloomscrolling #orchids #anthurium #cat #cats
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2026-02-25 02:45:00 UTC

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i've seen them turn black and start to rot on the tree. coconuts however WILL bonk you on the head.

2026-02-24 22:05:53 UTC

An extremely productive tree at my friend's place... just loaded with jackfruit.
She's a newcomer to the island and these trees were already on the property she bought with her husband. I was looking at the tree in awe and she said that another friend of hers did the same. She has several trees on her property that are equally productive. This is all she's ever known about jackfruit, so in her mind, this is just normal, right? I don't have much experience with jackfruit myself, but I can still recognize and admire such a productive tree that makes pounds and pounds of good food.
#food #jackfruit #gardening #plants #trees #hawaii
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2026-02-23 04:11:02 UTC

Fresh pigeon peas. So beautiful 🥰
They're going into a veggie soup.
#beans #hawaii #harvest #food
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2026-02-22 19:59:25 UTC

Another lot in my neighborhood getting ripped...
It's all very "fern gully"..
#hawaii
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2026-02-22 19:54:10 UTC

After a big thunderstorm last night, we finally have some sun. And there's snow on Mauna Kea. This view is from my bf's farm, featuring his neighbor's cows 🐄.
#hawaii
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2026-02-18 20:26:38 UTC

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Vanilla progress continues, with daytime drying in the car (it's been very rainy here, so the car is the dryest place), and nighttime sweating with the hot water bottle in a cooler bag.
I haven't noticed the changes day by day, but they are now significantly more shriveled up. I'm not sure if they're getting too much drying and not enough sweating 🤷.
Some of the tiny ones are definitely almost done. I guess I gotta find out what the next step is 😅
#vanilla #harvest #food #hawaii
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2026-02-12 03:55:54 UTC

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jeez that looks almost summery. What would be a more typical look for winter in this area?

2026-02-08 06:42:45 UTC

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Today's vanilla bean "sunning". It was overcast, but I still brought them out of their sweat to air out and get some light.
They're now back in their cozy cooler bag with a fresh hot water bottle.
And I just realized that as I was writing this post, I'm listening to a group called "vanilla": https://youtu.be/WPgImQNv8CM
5/
#vanilla #food #orchids #gardening #hawaii
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2026-02-06 22:12:07 UTC

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Next step on the vanilla journey: 10-14 days of "sun drying during the day and sweating with the hot water bottle in an insulated cooler bag at night."
After yesterday spent in the cooler bag, today is the first day of sun-drying (as shown below).
The air smells like vanilla 🥰
4/
#vanilla #food #plants #gardening #hawaii
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2026-02-05 23:44:09 UTC

RE: https://kolektiva.social/@saltphoenix/116020374576684153
Oh my goodness look at these adorable goth chickens!
#note1tvz…ty9d

2026-02-05 19:30:23 UTC

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After patting the vanilla pods dry, I wrapped them in towels and packed them in an insulated cooler bag with a hot water bottle, wrapped in more towel.
This is the beginning of the "sweating" stage that lasts 10-14 days. They will spend evenings wrapped up with a hot water bottle in an insulated cooler bag, and they will spend daytime drying in the sun.
See process description here: https://www.kingson-foodtech.com/en/a4-11232-16797/The-Journey-of-Vanilla-Beans-Vanilla-Bean-Processing.html
And here: https://www.vanillapura.com/blogs/vanilla-extract-making-101/how-to-cure-vanilla-beans-at-home-a-step-by-step-guide
Pic 1: I wrapped the pods in their little towels, then packed them in an insulated cooler bag that was lined with a big folded towel.
Pic 2: I put a hot water bottle on top, wrapped it all up in the big towel, and zipped up the cooler bag.
They will stay like this till tomorrow (I'll keep an eye on the water bottle and refill with hot water as necessary), then will set to sun dry during the daytime tomorrow.
3/
#vanilla #orchids #plants #food #hawaii
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2026-02-05 19:23:19 UTC

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The first step in vanilla pod processing is to "kill" the bean via boiling or freezing.
I don't have a freezer, so I decided to submerge in boiled water for 3-5 mins.
Instructions here: https://www.vanillapura.com/blogs/vanilla-extract-making-101/how-to-cure-vanilla-beans-at-home-a-step-by-step-guide
And here: https://www.kingson-foodtech.com/en/a4-11232-16797/The-Journey-of-Vanilla-Beans-Vanilla-Bean-Processing.html
Pic 1: beans in boiled water (not on the flame - just in water that I boiled).
Pic 2: after boiling, I laid them out and dried them with a towel.
2/
#vanilla #plants #food #hawaii #orchids
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2026-02-05 19:19:21 UTC

It's vanilla bean harvest day! After growing vanilla vines in various places for various years and finally getting some flowers in a place I could reach (as opposed to high up in a tree), then hand-pollinating them with the right technique, then waiting for the pods to reach full size over a couple months, then letting the pods ripen on the vine for 9 months, they're finally ready to harvest!
I'll be using this thread to track the rest of the process.
So, how did I know when to harvest? According to this blog post: https://vanillery.com/ripe-green-vanilla-pods/ they are ready to harvest when the bottoms are yellow and just starting to crack. I've included pics below showing my pods this morning when I decided to harvest.
Pic 1: yellow on the bottom
Pic 2: yellow on bottom and just starting to split
Pic 3: further splitting, with seeds visible inside. I smelled this one at the place where it was opening, and it smelled fantastic - like vanilla.
Next steps described in next posts...
1/
#vanilla #orchids #plants #hawaii #food
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2026-01-31 18:08:39 UTC

RE: https://regenerate.social/@mk30/115988083341238520
there really is no substitute for being in relation with the land...with a specific land that you know and feel embedded in...whose rhythms and cycles you understand...
#note1yv9…u9f0

2026-01-31 05:34:57 UTC

sometimes i forget the things i've learned by living here and just observing and being curious, but being around a classmate (and now friend) who is new to the island is helping me remember.
a few examples:
her property has loads of huge bird's nest ferns up in the trees. she hadn't noticed them until I pointed them out.
we were at our instructor's place doing a fieldwork assignment and a person pulled up in a pickup truck. she was like "what is this person doing?" and i said "well he's got a pig trap in his truck, so probably he's going to set it up here at the property." when did i learn what a pig trap looks like? i don't know.
and she's not a plant person, so she really doesn't know the plants. she did say "wait is that a...plumeria?" and i said "yes! good job!" and she was proud of herself. i told her "you'll know the plants soon enough, i'm sure of it." i don't know how long it took me to learn a lot of the plants, but again, it was curiosity: i really wanted to know!
anyway, she's very smart and adapts extremely quickly, so she'll be a pro soon enough, i'm sure of it.

2026-01-21 00:48:04 UTC

Hibiscuses in bloom at my place, 2 of which are edible:
1) bele (abelmoschus manihot, also known as Tongan spinach): big, green leaves that can be cooked. Learn more: https://plantpono.org/bele/
2) cranberry hibiscus (hibiscus acetosella): edible leaves which can also be used in tea. The leaves are the same color as the flowers.
3) hibiscus x rosa-sinensis: common hibiscus, it blooms regularly and makes me happy 😊
4) hau (hibiscus tiliaceus, also known as sea hibiscus): a coastline tree that's salt- and wind-tolerant. Young flowers are yellow, and over the course of a day, they turn pink, until they're maroon when they fall. Pic below shows a young flower next to a fallen one. Learn more: https://mnbg.org/hawaiian-native-plant-collection/hau-hibiscus-tileaceus/
#flowers #plants #bloomscrolling #hawaii #hibiscus
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2026-01-17 06:51:10 UTC

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i'm sure you're right. the art is incredible. i wonder if adventure comic books might have been influenced by this as well, since i think that raiders of the lost ark was also influenced by adventure comic books.

2026-01-17 03:08:14 UTC

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it looks like a cenote 🤔

2026-01-15 18:31:23 UTC

i want to be out there working on my outdoor zones, but my zone 0 is in disarray and i guess i have to work on that. 😿
#offgrid #homestead #permaculture
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2026-01-15 04:44:21 UTC

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i wondered that too (since i've never harvested it), and apparently there are 2 indicators: 1) it starts to turn brown 2) it actually feels kind of soft. you can sort of press on the outside and there's some give.
most of that plastic bag in the post above is now in my bf's dehydrator. but i have a whole other one from my friend to process tonight.

2026-01-14 19:42:46 UTC

Yesterday I visited with a friend of mine who has harvested *multiple* ripe jackfruit. We processed the biggest, ripest one, and I got to take home soooo much jackfruit 😋
Jackfruit is a food of plenty. It's very family- and village-oriented. Processing it is a group affair (children can help too). You can eat the fruit as you go, which makes it fun. And when you're done, you have way more than you can possibly eat on your own, so you have to share. A true food of plenty 🤌💖
Pic 1: the whole thing
Pic 2: inside
Pic 3: the giant bag of fresh fruit I got to take home (most of this will go into my bf's dehydrator for drying)
Pic 4: the stringy parts for cooking
Fun fact, they also save the seeds, pressure cook them, and turn them into hummus, which i didn't know was an option.
In conclusion, I love fresh jackfruit and I think I have to go back tonight to help do the next one 😅
#jackfruit #food #fruit #hawaii
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2026-01-14 00:15:46 UTC

My very fancy "black" orchid (monnierara millennium magic "witchcraft" FCC/AOS) is making a new section!
When I got it, I was a little worried because I believe that it can only make 1 flower spike for every section, and the growers told me that the plant needs like a dry season cycle to create a new section. I wasn't sure whether I could manage that because we don't reeeeally have a dry-dry season, so it's pretty cool to see this because it means that at least *something* is going right.
I have this plant at the very edge of a roofed area where it doesn't really get direct rain, but it gets a lot of side rain and various drips. It's also in the shade.
So yea, I hope this means that at some point in the future, it'll make another batch of flowers 😊.
Pic 2 shows the first set of flowers it made, in Oct. 2025.
#orchids #flowers #gardening
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2025-12-18 20:07:38 UTC

We try so hard to create the conditions that our plants want in the hopes that they will thrive, but sometimes what they want is to be in a sun-blasted no-soil environment on the top of some corrugated roof 🤣
Note: I definitely didn't put this orchid up there, but look at how happy it is!
#orchids #flowers #plants #gardening #hawaii #junglelife
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2025-12-01 00:24:39 UTC

I'm dilly-dallying on doing a small (but annoying) water repair, so I'm sharing what I've been doing the last few days: clearing a large area of this ding dang vine.
It covers everything, grows in 0 soil, chokes other plants, crawls *under* other plants, puts down roots at every node, breaks very easily (so you can't really tug on it and get the whole string), the root breaks easily (I've started using my garden knife to get the roots out), has a pretty strong root given how delicate the vine is, comes back from a single node, every node can put out vines in multiple directions, and if you leave it in a pile, it'll grow back.
And the worst part? I introduced it myself 😭😭😭😭. I've been battling it for years, and every time I clear an area, i have to stay on top of it because there are inevitably pieces I missed.
It's a nitrogen fixer, so you'd think it would be acceptable, but it is not. I have other aggressive vines that are extremely difficult to kill, but this one is the most sneaky and annoying.
Pic 1: kitten with a patch of vine
Pic 2: baby vine growing from bean
Pic 3: example of its robust root
Pic 4: this is me gently tugging on a vine to see where it connects to the ground. This goes into a pile of rotting coconuts that is being used for planting. This is almost certainly how I introduced the vine - from truckloads of these old coconuts I got from a former friend's place several years ago. The vines love to put their roots into the rotting parts of the coconuts. And that's why you should always be very careful about what plant material you bring to your place! I was ignorant and I brought an entirely new pest to my place.
#plants #weeds #gardening #VineGang #hawaii #InvasiveSpecies
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2025-11-27 00:35:32 UTC

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omg that first photo is so beautiful! 😍

2025-11-26 02:45:34 UTC

Here's a lovely orange epidendrum orchid high up in a dracaena tree.
Pic 1: the flowers
Pic 2: zoomed out view showing how high up the orchid is in the tree
Pic 3: the epidendrum 's root clump. The roots are completely exposed to the air, and the plant is happy.
This giant dracaena patch was filled with these orchids. I imagine their seeds get blown around and settle in different parts of the dracaena.
Seeing plants like this reminds me to always look up into the trees when I'm in a climate zone that's hospitable to orchids.
#plants #orchids #flowers #hawaii #bloomscrolling
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2025-11-11 22:39:32 UTC

I didn't know I was growing a pigeon pea tunnel, but now that it exists, I love it!
#plants #gardening #hawaii
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2025-11-04 22:15:32 UTC

My newest garden area on Oct. 11 (pic 1) and today (Nov 4). The pumpkin is going bonkers!
I suspect the impressive growth is because this area used to be the compost area for our composting toilet.
The stuff growing in here is:
* Yellow lilikoi (passion fruit)
* Pumpkin of some sort
* Pigeon pea (nitrogen fixing)
* Ice cream bean (nitrogen fixing)
* Malabar chestnut (not nitrogen fixing as far as I know, but I had a lot of them in pots, so I decided to plant a few here)
* A tomato (not sure how this snuck in)
I also stuck a few Lima beans and long beans (sometimes called foot long beans) in the soil, but I'm not sure if they've come up.
This area is basically solid rock + whatever was left from the composter + some soil I mixed up and brought in. The ice cream bean and pigeon peas are meant to provide some solid structure for the soil so it doesn't just get used up in one plentiful burst of growth then disappear. (It's also on a local high spot with a bit of a slope, so this area really won't hold anything unless there are roots to anchor the soil and help build more of it.)
We'll see if anything happens here beyond this initial growth spurt.
PS - can you spot the 2 cats in the first photo? 😸
#plants #gardening #hawaii
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2025-11-04 21:37:59 UTC

My Jade vine is flowering for the 2nd time this year 🥰
Every time I pass it, I can't help but smile.
#hawaii #flowers #bloomscrolling
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2025-11-04 21:32:57 UTC

Mystery longfruits growing in the bushes. They might be cucumbers? But I've never planted cucumbers... 🤔
#plants #gardening #hawaii
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2025-10-12 01:32:35 UTC

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I touched it and everything! It was pleasantly fuzzy.

2025-10-11 19:49:23 UTC

Today's forest forensics: what is the thing in the image below? Note: it's fuzzy.
#plants #ForestForensics #hawaii
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2025-10-09 18:29:28 UTC

The black orchid i got at the Hilo orchid show this year is blooming 😍
It's called monnierara millennium magic witchcraft, which is a very fancy name.
#orchids #flowers #bloomscrolling #hawaii #plants
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2025-10-04 20:07:17 UTC

I've put my one Halloween decoration out by the driveway. As you can see from the pic of my street, we don't get a lot of trick or treaters.
But this friend has spent a number of years in the garden, so they've developed some very cool features, like plants growing in them, and a single very cool loc on the side of their head.
#halloween #spooky #hawaii
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2025-10-02 06:07:28 UTC

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i've never had blueberries from the bush! they look so tasty!

2025-09-20 19:47:32 UTC

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yes, exactly lol. spring green. i've been to the circus museum!
we definitely missed the mustard museum, hamburger museum, and fishing hall of fame 😅

2025-09-20 17:58:51 UTC

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i think my favorite was the giant whale. did you all have any favorite areas?
on a side note, i have very warm childhood memories of all the different tourist traps of wisconsin for chicago people in the summer. wisconsin dells, bowling green, there was even a tiny norman rockwell museum that was nice.

2025-09-19 07:41:59 UTC

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hey I've been there! Multiple times. All when I was a kid. House on the rock is a deeply odd place.

2025-08-26 19:18:43 UTC

I need to get more tiny containers for seeds. Little envelopes don't work in our environment (they get moldy). The little jars in pic 2 are pretty ideal.
#gardening #seeds #hawaii
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2025-08-24 19:27:08 UTC

Lima bean harvest 🥰
Picking Lima beans is like finding IRL loot boxes. I must open them immediately and see what's inside 😄.
And I find "jack and the beanstalk" extremely relatable, because if someone offered me some magical beans, that would be very tempting! Beans are already pretty magical.
#beans #food #gardening #hawaii
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2025-08-20 03:05:20 UTC

A blooming turmeric plant. The white part is actually the bract (the structure that holds the blooms). The blooms themselves are the little yellow bits toward the bottom.
#gardening #flowers #bloomscrolling #hawaii #plants @npub1agj…lkw7 #turmeric
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2025-08-09 02:11:34 UTC

"What, then, is the genius of trees? Rix locates it in the elegant solutions they have devised to the constantly changing riddle of life. It’s a genius you can smell in the rich terpenes given off by trees to seed clouds, generating rain and expanding their own habitats. It’s a genius you can taste in the sweet fruit that makes animals do trees’ bidding, and arguably gave our simian ancestors their brains. It’s a vast, generative genius that has nurtured our own. Our clever fingers – and fingerprints – evolved to grip their branches. Our dreams were born in the safe, fragrant nests we built in their canopies. This is why, Rix argues, we find the smell of wood so comforting, and why we like to press our noses between the pages of books. Genius is too small a word for all of this." - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/aug/08/the-genius-of-trees-by-harriet-rix-review-how-trees-rule-the-world
#trees #nature #books #bookstodon

2025-07-31 23:16:03 UTC

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those corns are beautiful! ❤️

2025-07-19 06:09:36 UTC

It was a hot, sunny day today, and as of now (8pm), it hasn't rained and the sky is clear. But look at this turmeric leaf!! It has a bunch of fat drops all around the edges.
edit: the helpful folks of mastodon have told me that what the plant is doing here is called guttation!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guttation
@npub1agj…lkw7
#plants #gardening #hawaii
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2025-07-19 02:48:12 UTC

My newest orchid purchase ($8.99). It's a dendrobium, but not sure what kind. The cute kind!
#orchids #flowers #bloomscrolling #hawaii
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2025-07-17 23:32:15 UTC

Veggie sautee with 100% garden veggies: long beans, sweet pepper, and Okinawa spinach (which grows incredibly well in our area and is a rich source of cooked green leaf veg).
This is the first time we've had my beloved long beans in years (the first year we lived here, we harvested them by the bucket and it was incredible). I'm saving the beans (and cooking the pods, which are soft and tasty) because this is exactly my favorite kind of bean and I don't want to repeat my previous mistake of letting them drop off. They are too delicious and nutritious!
Now I just need a local source of cooking oil (there has to be a local coconut oil company, right? 🤔 There's local macadamia nut oil, but it's very $$$)
...and an alternative to propane 😭 (I do have my solar cooker, but it doesn't fry - it steams, boils, bakes).
This was part of a lunch that included a fried egg (egg from @npub14ls…cydh 's birds), fresh tomato from the garden, and short grain brown rice from the store. Instead of rice, I often have kalo (taro) from my bf, but today I didn't have any.
When the boats stop coming, I think there will be a lot less frying (more cooking over a fire) and when frying does happen, it'll be on butter (or tallow, for the meat eaters). It's definitely easier to get butter from cows than oil from coconuts or macadamias.
And as for propane replacement, I really don't know, but probably the ideal solution would be to get beefy solar panels and batteries, and an induction cooker.
I also don't have a local replacement for soy sauce, but we do have salt on the shoreline. It gathers in little low areas in shoreline rocks during dry periods. To get enough for daily supply though, you'd have to know the spots and spend a fair bit of time harvesting. The shoreline in my area really puts the "trace" in "trace minerals". I'd have to find the right spots.
#hawaii #growyourown #gardening #food #vegetarian #solarpunk
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2025-06-22 01:36:02 UTC

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here are 2 varieties of Cuban oregano that I grow
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2025-06-22 00:48:33 UTC

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cuban oregano has thick leaves that are a bit fuzzy. These look like thin, glossy leaves.

2025-06-18 19:37:35 UTC

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welcome! Please enjoy some jungle kittens 😸
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2025-06-18 18:57:45 UTC

It's a calm morning over here. Getting a bit of sunrain.
There's a jade white-eye songbird that keeps pecking at a boxy metal cheese grater I have hanging in the kitchen. It's been going at it since yesterday! No idea what it thinks it's doing. It does 3 pecks/knocks then takes a break. Then 3 more. Over and over. 🤷
This morning I'm clearing some extremely overgrown garden area. Loads of vines and huge grasses and sword ferns. I actually love this kind of work. No thinking required, and at the end of it, things are clean.
#hawaii #morning #gardening #garden #plants #birds #solarpunk
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2025-06-14 00:20:15 UTC

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holy smokes ... that's incredible

2025-06-10 20:24:38 UTC

Seems like the pumpkins are happy with the wicker chair planter 😊. And it has the added bonus of being biodegradable!
#gardening #hawaii #diy #plants
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2025-06-08 17:35:32 UTC

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that's fantastic! Did you have to bring in a bunch of soil/mulch?

2025-06-01 22:00:45 UTC

I'm telling y'all, it's important to just hang out with the plants in the garden and look at them.
I was just spending time with the vanilla vine whose flowers I've been attempting to pollinate, feeling bad that the pollinations seemed to not have stuck. I was looking at the withered flowers wondering if they would fatten up or what? (because some of the flowers fell off, but some withered and stayed on the plant.) when I realized that some of the withered flowers were actually attached to green tubes! 😱
So in pic 1 below, here's what's happening:
It's an inflorescence (I think that's the word) where flowers come in one or two at a time. So the bud at the left and top have not yet opened. On the right behind my hand is a flower that I recently pollinated and that's withering. Most of the yellow-green "sticks" are places where flowers used to be, but have fallen off. Then at the bottom, you see three pods that look like fresh green beans, and I believe these are pods that have gotten pollinated and are growing! The pod in the middle still has a dried flower at the bottom.
Once I realized what I was looking at, I realized there were a bunch of other pods on the plant (see pic 2).
So I looked up when they should be harvested and it turns out they get harvested before they dry on the vine: https://vanillery.com/ripe-green-vanilla-pods/
The pods are so sneaky! They totally look like the rest of the vine, so a dumb predator (like me) wouldn't notice they were there, allowing the pod to mature and release its thousands of tiny seeds. Such a smart plant.
So yay! If I hadn't just been spacing out, standing in the garden, looking at the plant, I might not have ever noticed 😱
#plants #gardening #nature #hawaii #vanilla #orchids @npub1agj…lkw7
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2025-05-25 04:54:08 UTC

Wow, I thought this tree near the shed was a mountain apple, but turns out it's a grumichama! They're tasty too!
Aside from some surinam cherry bushes, I think this might be the first tree we have that's made fruit! 🥰
#hawaii #plants #food #fruit #gardening #homestead
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2025-05-18 07:06:15 UTC

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i think of it as a feedback process. do a thing, wait, observe, maybe do a different thing, wait, observe, etc.
even though the plants are doing most of the work in the garden, it IS a process of co-creation (since i push/nudge/weed, and they respond).
i also think it's really interesting that i can't really reduce what i do in the garden to a specific process or formula that can be written in a book...beyond "wait, watch, observe, see how the plant is doing and what it might need, make some interventions, wait, watch, observe...". i consider it an intuitive way to interact with the world and it comes pretty naturally to me, but i have met people to whom it does not come naturally at all.
it does feel pretty magical when i get a new orchid (for example) and i'm able to pick the exact spot in the forest/canopy to put it so that it thrives. unfortunately i've killed a lot of plants to get to this point of knowledge, but it's pretty cool to know that i can kind of do this. and i always keep planting!

2025-05-18 06:16:08 UTC

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agreed. a little nudge here, a little direction there, and they do the rest. i think knowing what little push/nudge is needed is the real "earth magic". through experience, you can make one seemingly small change and affect how everything develops from there.

2025-05-18 05:32:54 UTC

Pulling weeds around the shampoo gingers is not a big deal at all because every time I brush up against them, I get a big whiff of their wonderful ginger smell 🥰 .
This patch started from one big piece of shampoo ginger that I was given a few years ago. I set it down in this spot "temporarily", and next thing I knew, it was happily growing. There isn't really soil here, but they don't care! They come back year after year. My kind of plant!
#plants #hawaii #gardening
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2025-05-18 05:18:25 UTC

It turns out that to plan a garden, you have to think in 4D: not just how much space the plants take up and how tall they'll get, but how they'll grow over time. And it's not so straightforward because they affect each others' growth: plants in the shade of other plants will grow differently than if they're in the sun, etc. Vining plants can crowd out and stifle other plants. And some plants improve soil quality around themselves, so they can boost the growth of their neighbors.
Ultimately you're making a home for a bunch of living beings who don't move by getting up and walking, but by creating more of their own bodies in the direction of the resources they need.
Maybe I've been sitting in the forest too long, but gardening remains fascinating to me.
#plants #gardening #DeepThoughts
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2025-05-06 20:56:47 UTC

I've got plenty of planting to do after visiting with my bf and getting loads of seeds and stuff from him.
Here's the stuff in the photo:
Top, in cardboard box: turmeric. I'll use some in cooking and plant the rest. Gingers do well at my place, so I can stick these directly in various shaded and semi-shaded areas and they should go.
Right, in bucket on ground: lots of inga edulis (ice cream bean). This is more than anyone could ever want, but there were many pods under the tree, so this is what I gathered. Inga is very good for soil-building (it's a quick-growing nitrogen fixer), so that's going to be its main job at my place. Apparently it does well when planted directly in the soil - not transplanted from a pot.
little container on the bottom: tea (Camellia sinensis). I already have a couple, but they never got that big and it'll be nice to start a new batch in better soil.
Little container on the left: pigeon pea. Another quick-growing nitrogen fixer that will help build soil.
little container on the right: surinam cherries. I already have many surinam sproutlings, but I ate a bunch of tasty surinams off his tree and these were the seeds so I might as well plant them.
The good part is that all of these can hang out for a while - it's not urgent to get them in the ground right away, or dry them or anything. They won't rot or get moldy in their current state. But yea, planting, yay!
#plants #gardening #hawaii #seeds
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2025-05-04 19:42:35 UTC

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Here are some of the interesting plants I saw at the plant sale:
1) globba sherwoodiana "white dragon"
2) a variety of beehive gingers (fun fact: the beehive parts are bracts. You can see some of the small flowers popping out from the bracts)
3) a fuzzy giant heliconia (I had never seen a fuzzy heliconia before!)
4) no idea what this is, but it was bright and pretty
2/5
#hilo #hawaii #plants #flowers #bloomscrolling
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2025-05-04 19:36:04 UTC

Yesterday was one of the most dangerous events for plant people in my area: the semi-annual plant sale at the zoo 🤣.
Here's a thread with some photos and the stuffs I got.
1/5
#plants #gardening #hawaii #hilo #flowers #bloomscrolling
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2025-04-30 21:47:45 UTC

I got some old issues of "better homes and gardens" for free at the library, and while I'm enjoying looking at these gardens (I particularly like the trellis design in pic 1), all i can think about is how expensive some of this landscaping looks 😅
I want a magazine of solarpunk/dirt farmer/off-gridder/homesteader/diy gardens! Where is it?!? 😸 I guess it's here on masto lol.
#solarpunk #diy #gardening #homestead #offgrid
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2025-04-30 08:22:58 UTC

"In Native Hawaiians’ genealogical stories, says Solomon Kahoʻohalahala, the coral polyp is considered the oldest ancestor, and they hold spiritual relationships with migratory animals, including the Koholā, or humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).
“Koholā is the manifestation of our god of the sea and is revered for its ability to dive into the depths of the deep sea and the realm of the sacred place of our creation, far beyond our imaginations,” he said. “Their care and protection are vital for the existence of species and Native Hawaiians.”
For generations, the traditional ecological knowledge, values, and spiritual beliefs of Indigenous peoples related to forests, lands, waters, and territories have helped conserve nature and its resources. “We do not see ourselves above nature, which is quite different from the colonial perspective that sees dominion over all things,” said Kahoʻohalahala, chairperson of Maui Nui Makai Network, a group of community and partner organizations across the Hawaiian Islands." - https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/we-belong-to-one-ocean-indigenous-leaders-demand-seat-at-the-table-of-high-seas-biodiversity-treaty/
#hawaii #nature #oceans #environment #indigenous

2025-04-24 20:30:35 UTC

Finished filling a planter bed that I built from wood scrap I had lying around. Yay!
I seeded it with papaya, pepper, pigeon pea, taro, ice cream bean, and pumpkin. Mostly seeds I had from kitchen scraps that needed to get used up - papayas that I ate, pepper I ate, taro I ate.
It's filled with a mix of many things, including lovely red soil from a friend's farm, black cinder, mulch, and potting mixes I got on clearance.
Soil is the main limiting factor at my place, since it's basically a forest on lava rock.
This area has a small down slope on one side, so without roots, the soil will eventually leak out. This is one reason why I included ice cream bean and pigeon pea - to try and anchor the soil and put nitrogen in.
Either way, I'll definitely have to top it up with mulch periodically, especially as the soil settles and washes out with rain.
#gardening #hawaii #soil #diy
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2025-04-24 18:38:01 UTC

I've received 3 trays of mamaki starts that are overgrown for their starter pots and are in a bit of rough shape. Going to give a bunch to @npub14ls…cydh , and for the rest, I'll find half-shade nooks in the lava to stick them in.
#gardening #plants #hawaii
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2025-04-22 20:33:26 UTC

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Also, it looks like this plant is getting some new growth, branching new vines off the main one. Which is great!
It seems to like this spot, growing all over a bush. It has access to sun on the outside of the bush (which is where the flowers are), but shade inside the bush for the lower parts of the vine.
#vanilla #orchids #gardening #hawaii
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2025-04-22 20:29:23 UTC

Vanilla flowers seem like they're almost fully open.
I'm watching videos on hand pollination: https://youtu.be/1RdoTcDD2EU?si=2j5k6eb7f_BMdD6M
Not sure if I can pollinate before the flower fully opens 🤔 but I'll wait just in case. Why am I nervous lol??
#vanilla #gardening #orchids #flowers #Bloomscrolling #hawaii
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2025-04-19 23:43:42 UTC

Check out this absolutely phenomenal friend I encountered on the path to onomea bay, on Hawai'i Island.
It's aristolochia grandiflora, and although Wikipedia says it should smell like rotting meat, I detected no smell.
Video here: https://youtube.com/shorts/YDl-bSr2p1c
#plants #flowers #Bloomscrolling #hawaii #VineGang
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2025-04-18 17:55:23 UTC

Urban squash patch in Hilo (yes yes, Hilo is hardly urban, but still! 😅).
This is on the grounds of a fruit and veg stand. The vines are growing all over the stand too. I hope it makes loads of squashes!
#plants #food #gardening #hawaii #Bloomscrolling
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2025-04-10 05:38:11 UTC

Looks like this vanilla vine might be flowering soon. This is exciting because it's almost in reach and I will try to hand pollinate. Every other time I've seen vanilla flower, the flowers have been 30 feet up in a tree 🤷
Time to watch some videos on hand pollinating vanilla.
#vanilla #gardening #hawaii #orchids
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2025-04-08 21:40:40 UTC

Ahh, a nice pile of pre-mulch (category: pallet). This pile isn't the final pile. It's the holding pile. Next step is distributing the pieces based on where i'd like them to decompose.
Stuff like managed decomposition really makes me feel like I've got my arm up to the elbow in the circle of life, swishing things around and trying to make something happen lol.
And yes, all my most profound ecological insights come only when I'm *at least* elbow deep in the circle of life.
Which reminds me, I have some goat poop (from @npub14ls…cydh 🥰) compost tea brewing in a bucket and I gotta stir it and distribute it. Swish swishing the circle of life quite literally, in this case 😸
#ecology #gardening #homestead #offgrid #hawaii
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2025-04-02 23:49:06 UTC

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fascinating! It's definitely cooler at the park. We're at elevation ~300 ft, and the park is around 4000 ft. It doesn't snow, but it's cooler most of the year, especially at night.

2025-04-02 21:08:24 UTC

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I always wanna see growing veggies content. The #gardening and #food and #plants tags are quite active.

2025-04-02 16:02:33 UTC

The 'ohi'a lehua are flowering at my place. Most 'ohi'a have red flowers, but they do vary. Here's our one yellow 'ohi'a. 🥰
When an 'ohi'a is in full flower, you can sometimes walk under it and hear it buzzing with bees.
Interestingly, when I was up at volcanoes national park last week, most of the 'ohi'a were not flowering. I wonder if that's due to the elevation difference (the park is much higher elevation than my place), or because the eruption and ash are somehow affecting the flowering cycle, or both, or something else entirely 🤔
#hawaii #plants #trees #flowers #Bloomscrolling
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2025-04-02 15:53:40 UTC

"We had begun the morning sipping traditional māmaki tea and eating homemade banana bread in the sunshine, as Waipā's guide, Kelsey Ke'alohilani Rogers, shared the legend of kalo (taro in Hawaiian) and how this root vegetable became an iconic part of Hawaiian culture. According to local beliefs, Earth Mother and Sky Father had a stillborn son. From the spot where he was buried, the first kalo plant grew, later nourishingtheir next son, Hāloa, the first human. "This is why kalo is more than food; it's family," Rogers explained." - https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250331-the-word-embodying-the-spirit-of-hawaii
#hawaii #tourism #travel

2025-04-01 19:30:44 UTC

gardener survey: what is the soil profile at your place?
this is the soil profile at mine: https://soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/K/KEAUKAHA.html
TLDR: 0-4 inches of organic, on top of solid lava rock all the way down.
so my biggest challenge is building (and keeping) soil.
why "keeping"? because we get over 100 inches of rain per year, with year-round temperatures above freezing. so we lose a lot of soil in runoff and in organic processes (seriously, mulch just disappears...you're like "didn't i put mulch down?" but that was a whole 6 months ago, so it's probably gone now.)
the best way to retain soil here is to put plants on it, as soil will clump around the roots and the roots will hold the soil in place.
i'd love to learn about the soil profile at your all's places and what kinds of challenges you have in growing stuffs.
#gardening #garden #soil #plants #hawaii

2025-03-31 17:59:48 UTC

Forest forensics quiz time!: can you spot the invasive, earthworm-hunting, flatworm bipalium kewense (arrowhead flatworm) amongst the other stuff on the ground in the pic below?
Your earthworms are begging you to eliminate these jerks who can regrow a whole new guy from even a small piece of this one! But you can't put it in the salt watery slug jar if you can't see it. (Hint: they like to come out on moist mornings after it's been dry for a while...mornings just like this one!)
#ForestForensics #hawaii #InvasiveSpecies #animals #garden #gardening #ecology #science #camouflage
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2025-03-13 09:30:02 UTC

I didn't set out to purposefully learn how soon the rain will be here based on the sound of it coming, but after living here for a while, I can do that.
It's very place-specific. I'm sure that if I went somewhere else with different rain patterns, I'd be way off.
This is my favorite kind of learning: the kind you get just from hanging out with nature long enough. 💚
This is the foundation of a lot of indigenous knowledge: being in a place, living with it, being a part of its cycles, and gaining that knowledge. Now, multiply that by many many generations of people who purposefully shared that knowledge with the next generation. This is not knowledge that can even be gained in a single generation because some of these cycles span many many many generations. This is the kind of knowledge that enables living with the land. And for those of us in the "modern world" who have been totally cut off from that knowledge, tossed far from where our ancestors lived, think of the disadvantage we have when it comes to starting to live with the land.
This is why it's so important to listen to indigenous folks when it comes to living with the land - because a lot of the rules they've got around how to relate to the land have been hard won over generations, despite hundreds of years of colonizers trying to sever people from ancestral knowledge and sever people from their lands.
#nature #JungleLife #offgrid #ForestLife #solarpunk #environment #indigenous

2025-02-26 05:04:55 UTC

My mom wants to know what's going on with the phalaenopsis orchid she recently bought. Are the air roots drying out too much, or an acceptable amount? I tell her that there's no real way to know, and that if it were my plant, I'd pull it out of the pot, shake off the store "soil", and take a proper look. She said "maybe I'll do that." I did not tell her that this is the first step to getting a little too into orchids, or at least it was for me. If she does it, she will discover that the store "soil" is junk and that she'll need to replace it. Then she might want to do the same with the rest of her handful of orchids. And then....who can say ... She's definitely working in a challenging environment for orchids: a dry house in suburban Illinois. So she's got her work cut out for her. Good luck mom.
#orchids #plants #gardening