MAHALO to everyone who made the garden workday and tree planting a beautiful day of growing community! Families came out in force to help install fruit trees donated by the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, build a giant bamboo trellis structure in the center of the garden, and plant thousands of seeds in the newly cleared hillside.
Over 75 community members spanning three generations gathered to dig holes, wheelbarrow compost and mulch to the 30 tree sites, plant trees, amend the soil with inputs donated by Dragon Heart Farm, water with liquid IMO Korean Natural Farming microorganism solution donated by Kahua Pa’a Mua, install sod donated by the Eubanks’ E-scape Enterprises, and plant seeds and native starts donated from farms including One Village Project, Mala’ai Garden Waimea and Ulu Mālama Terrace Farm at HPA.
Other community members who provided invaluable support for the day included Kohala Unupaʻa, Kohala Grown Market, Devin Longfellow of Give and Grow Discovery School, Sam Fleshman of Natural Progressions, Leslie Nugent, Nany Zepeda and Brooks Thomas of Dragon Heart Farm, Easten Tanimoto @tanimotofoto, Jonathan Bartsch, HIP Ag, Kohala Food Hub, Wild Alaskan Salmon, and garden fiscal sponsor North Kohala Community Resource Center.
The FTPF-donated fruit tree installation was incorporated into a larger Island-wide school garden workday initiative hosted by Mala‘ai Garden and the Hawaii Island School Garden Network, in partnership with the County of Hawaiʻi and The Food Basket, sponsored by Hawaiʻi Department of Health.
We envision the trees we planted together will feed our school and community for generations to come. We are so grateful for the incredible support, and can't wait to watch our school, garden and community continue to grow and thrive together!
AL
HA
HAMs. Heather B
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