My Summer Vacation: Anthurium Garden Prep Work

I started out the morning by moving Grandma's anthuriums that were growing at the base of the hāpuʻu to be moved tomorrow. Even though we are only moving half of the hāpuʻu, the plants were growing so close to the trunk, no matter how careful Kamaka & his stepdad & brother were, they would get stepped on. So I put them in flats with a little potting soil and have them sitting in the holding area where they will get misted for 10 minutes every hour.

Half of this hāpuʻu will be moved tomorrow.

So these anthuriums need to be moved today.

Another view of the plants that need to be moved..

The3 1st tray of salvaged plants.

The rest of the plants.

According to the Google calendar, the full moon was yesterday at 9:12 am; I don't know if it is corrected for my time zone, but I suspect it is if there was any geek working on that program for Google. Last night the moon was really lighting up my bedroom.

The moon about 1:45 am.

So when birdrise came along I was still pretty tired after having a fitful sleep because it was so bright. This morning I heard not only the Saffron Finch but Wiley was also meowing! I think Wiley is hanging out under the house now, probably near the ramp. Last night I fed them a little late because I was working on the sauce for the Butter Chicken; Wiley came running up to the food within about 10 seconds of me closing the door!

Birdrise twenty-seven minutes before sunrise.

Thirty-three minutes after sunrise.

I have decided to turn that section where I am keeping the plants into a permanent holding area. Originally I was just going to continue with my weed-cloth-and-red-lava-rock system around the house for weed suppression so I have less to do all at once the next time I need to treat the house for termites. But I decided weed cloth with capstones works just as well; the capstones would make it harder for plants I leave in the holding area too long to root in anything out side of the pot.

The holding area.

A pot of moa.

I think this is an iris seedling.

I think it came from this plant.

I also put up the house numbers, finally! Now you will be able to more easily find the house when you come to visit me.

I am using the chain as a plumb to get the number straight.

The chain worked pretty well!

I took a little break from working outside to run to Takata for the tomato paste for tomorrow's lunch. After dinner I finished making the sauce for the butter chicken. And also broiled the chicken to go in to the sauce. Everything is all together now and only needs to be heated up tomorrow for lunch.

The sauce.

Whoever thought a broiler on the bottom was a good idea, never broiled anything!

The chicken ready to be chopped and added to the sauce.

Indian Butter Chicken.

After lunch I worked on rebuilding the brick containment wall on the east side of the easterly bed. I tooka break about every 15 minutes and took a photo each time. I t took me about 45 minutes to finish this little stretch. (I couldn't find the photo I took earlier showing the original meandering rock and brick wall.) The northerly edge of this bed is mainly made of rocks that are piled on each other; it meanders a little but was mainly intact so I left it that way.

Near the start of the rebuilding.

All pau!

From this angle you can see where it turns in to a rock edge near the last hāpuʻu.

The westerly bed is in much worse shape; it had more invasive trees, shrubs, and grass clumps when I first started restoring Grandmaʻs anthurium garden. The northerly and westerly edges were also missing.

The stake with the white flagging tape is where the largest hāpuʻu that we move will be replanted.

I had to remove the big clumps of grass before I could start on the edges.

The northerly edge is done.

I still need to build the westerly edge; I am going to use rocks for this side.

Getting the 100 anthurium starts to replant Grandma's anthurium garden fell through. Kamaka's stepdad wanted to get an early start and Laura, the anthurium lady, had to work yesterday & today so she could not get the plants ready for them by this evening. I am thinking on my next trip I will fly in to Hilo instead so I can swing by and get the anthuriums. Then head to the house. There is no rule that says I can only fly in to Kona to get here!

Tomorrow I will work on potting up the edible ginger, the red ginger in the anthurium bed, and a couple of small blue ginger plants in the anthurium bed. I think I will also try to lay down some weed cloth around the persimmon tree before I leave.

Martina & Gecko #1 were on the kitchen table both at lunch and later in the evening. During lunch Martina once again came to eat things off my plate. I was reading emails on my phone when I spotted her so I quietly shifted to camera mode and began taking pictures. I did one flash which upset her.

Hmmm, whatʻs for lunch?

That tastes pretty good!

Hey! I said no pictures!

Thatʻs it! Iʻm leaving!

Gecko #1 comes in from the right as Martina leaves on the left.

Thatʻs about as close as Gecko #1 got to me.

Gecko #1 leaves the table.

I didn't really see the cats today. I think that was because I was outside for a lot of the day. I think they went over to Jessie's to stay away from me.But I did see a myna come in to get their food since they didn't show up.

There were 9 new cases of COVID-19 again today; I have not heard why we are suddenly getting more cases. The known cases are now up to 673. but there are no new deaths or hospitalizations. The number of people released from isolation has now gone down to a little over 91%.