Always curious and constantly experimental, Kim Monke has taken Master Gardening to a high art form. Her small garden space in Palisades is filled with color while including food, flowers and fragrance. In the short three years that she and her husband, Joe, have lived in Kona, she has transformed their landscape and is still making changes and additions today.
Growing up in San Francisco, Kim often flew down seven hills on her bicycle to visit Golden Gate Park. She truly enjoyed visiting places like the Conservatory of Flowers and the Botanical Garden in the Park where she knew she wasn’t likely to find poison oak. Though her extreme allergy to the poison oak plant kept her from exploring wilder places, she delighted in visiting anywhere she could find plants, especially flowers, growing.
In 1980m she married and moved with her husband to Tucson, Arizona. Long-term Tucson resident, author Barbara Kingsolver, pointed out that the Arizona desert was a place where most of the food and water comes from elsewhere. Kim decided not to surrender to that reality.
“I learned xeriscape gardening techniques, I acquired free drought tolerant trees from ‘Trees for Tucson’ and I started growing food,” Kim explains.
Getting her kids involved in the garden was fun for her as well as her children. Her daughter definitely inherited Kim’s plant-loving DNA. She now owns a successful flower farm in Bellingham, Washington. Her Free Range Flowers grows cut flowers and foliage using sustainable practices, some of which she certainly learned working with her mom.
In Tucson, Kim landed a job working for a local TV station. She considers that her on-air reporting was mostly educational.
She enumerated some of her topics to me. “I researched environmental issues, did stories about growing food in the desert and often reported on Native American issues and life on the nearby reservations. I spent a lot of time at the landfill.”
In addition to her interest in gardening, Kim is also a water enthusiast. She loves to swim. A few years after her husband died and her children were grown, she began to entertain the possibility of retiring. When she and her new husband, Joe, decided do that and move to Hawaii, she was ecstatic.
The opportunity to swim in a warm ocean and grow plants year round made the decision easy for her. They moved to Kona in 2017. As soon as she arrived in October, she contacted Ty McDonald the UH Extension Agent in Kona responsible for coordinating the local Master Gardener Program. She began doing volunteer work with plants until the next series of Master Gardener classes started the following January.
Learning ways to grow plants in the tropics was a new and delightful adventure for Kim; one filled with lots of trials and errors along with tons of new information. It did not end with her graduation from the Master Gardener Program, however. She continued growing plants she found interesting and experimenting with different techniques in her home garden.
For several good reasons, she decided to work on enriching her soil and putting in raised beds to grow herbs and vegetables. Having beds about 3 feet tall meant they would be easy to work in and harvest from. She filled them with organically enriched soil and installed salad greens right away. To her dismay, the slugs found her new garden very quickly. Joe to the rescue. He designed and installed a slug and snail deterrent made from welding wire run by a 9-volt battery attached to her beds.
Despite having a full schedule of activities, Kim reports that she spends at least an hour or two a day working in her garden, she enjoys nearly every minute. She works mostly by herself but reports that Joe is very supportive and often offers helpful ideas.
Part of Kim’s schedule is volunteering through the Master Gardener Program. She has a regular shift on the Master Gardener helpline and often works the Master Gardener information table at events. One of her favorite volunteer gigs is at the Kailua-Kona Public Library’s Community Seed Library working with the “Seed Sisters.” The group of six to eight volunteers meets several times a month to order, package and place seeds in an old wooden card catalog file. The file now contains lots of small packages of non-hybrid and non-GMO seeds for the community. The Seed Library offers seeds to gardeners hoping that they will save seeds from their harvest and return some to the Library.
The seed sisters along with library employee Kipapa Kahelahela also coordinate a monthly presentation on topics of interest to gardeners. Kim will likely offer the introduction to the next speaker on April 4 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Micah Barker’s presentation will be about controlling pests sustainably. Kim is already employing some of the techniques he has outlined in past presentations.
When I asked Kim to tell me her favorite plant, she admitted that her favorites change frequently depending on what looks pretty and is growing well. The plants at the top of her list usually include ones with beautiful flowers, a wonderful fragrance or great taste. Hard pressed to find all of her favorite traits in a single species, her favorites change often.
She does love orchids, but confessed that this month’s favorite was the exotic hanging blossoms of the jade vine. Another recent favorite was the kula gardenia with butter yellow flowers and a heady fragrance. She was also quick to point out how much she enjoyed placing her new blue hydrangea in her garden to expand the color palette in that section.
Among her favorite veggies are peppers, of course. She grew many varieties in Arizona, some of which are hard to find here. The easier to access Hawaiian chili pepper seeds have grown into a large shrub that is currently taking over one of her beds. She continues to try different varieties of salad greens and is currently delighted with the tasty and colorful tomatoes she’s getting from Baker Creek’s “Brad’s Atomic Tomato” seeds.
Being a creative cook helps Kim deal with occasional over abundance in her garden. Tree tomato tart and preserved lemons are among her recent experiments. She eats all parts of her nasturtium plants and is looking at ways to make chocolate from the cacao tree she recently acquired.
Applying all she has learned about soil quality, plant heath and low-tox treatment of pests, she is often successful at adding new plants that she grows from seeds as well as from local cuttings. She encourages other gardeners to persist to figure out answers to gardening problems. She has seen that if you give up early you may miss learning valuable new information.
Kim doesn’t give up but keeps trying new plants and new techniques and continues to learn from her mistakes. Her lovely garden is a testament to her success as a Master Gardener.
Diana Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant living part time in Kailua-Kona.
Gardening Events
Monday: “Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers” from 7 to 9 p.m. at West Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers office 81-6393 Mamalahoa Highway in Kealakekua. White wooden building on makai side across from the Department of Transportation yard. Eli Ednie will discuss his recent trip to Indonesia and Malaysia. Park in front or on the north side. Bring fruit to share. For more information contact Brian Lievens President West Hawaii Chapter at 895-8753 or greenwizard@hawaii.rr.com.
Saturday: “Work Day at Amy Greenwell Garden” from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Meet at the Garden Visitor Center across from the Manago Hotel in Captain Cook. Volunteers will be able to help with garden maintenance to prepare for the grand reopening and are invited to bring a brown bag lunch. Water and snacks provided. Call Peter at 323-3318 for more information.
Saturday, April 4th
“Controlling Plant Pests” from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Kailua-Kona Public Library at 75-138 Hualālai Road. Micah Barker will discuss prevention and control of plant pests and diseases. Free event. For more information, contact the Library at 327-4327
“Coffee Berry Borer Conference” from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Courtyard by Marriot King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel at 75-5660 Palani Road, Kailua-Kona. Registration is required. Register at https://cbbconference2020eventbrite.com by March 31st. For more information contact Roseann Leiner at roseannl@hawaii.edu or call (808) 969-8256.
Farmer Direct Markets
Wednesday: “Ho’oulu Farmers Market” 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay
Saturday: “Keauhou Farmers Market” 8 a.m. to noon at Keauhou Shopping Center
“Kamuela Farmer’s Market” from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Pukalani Stables
“Waimea Town Market” from 7:30 a.m. to noon at the Parker School in central Waimea
“Waimea Homestead Farmers Market” from 7 a.m. to noon next to Thelma Parker Gym in front of Thelma Parker Library.
Sunday: “Pure Kona Green Market” 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Amy Greenwell Garden in Captain Cook
“Hāmākua Harvest” 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hwy 19 and Mamane Street in Honoka’a
Plant Advice Lines
Anytime: konamg@ctahr.hawaii.edu Tuesdays & Thursdays: 9 a.m. to noon at UH-CES in Kainaliu – 322-4892
Mon., Tues. & Fri: 9 a.m. to noon at UH CES at Komohana in Hilo 981-5199 or himga@hawaii.edu