LIHU‘E — The goal of two Kaua‘i High School seniors is to increase the harvest from the Mayor’s Aloha Garden to at least 15 pounds every two weeks. Sheldon Chu and Tyler Navarro have “adopted” the garden located behind the
LIHU‘E — The goal of two Kaua‘i High School seniors is to increase the harvest from the Mayor’s Aloha Garden to at least 15 pounds every two weeks.
Sheldon Chu and Tyler Navarro have “adopted” the garden located behind the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall as their senior project.
With the help of fellow students from the Kaua‘i High School Key Club, the two seniors were busy planting seeds for corn and broccoli while other students tilled the soil and attempted to cut out the overgrowth of weeds.
Each student has his own agenda in the joint project, said Charlene Navarro, advisor for the Key Club.
“Tyler’s goal is to learn more about organic gardening while increasing the productivity of the plot,” Charlene said. “Sheldon’s project is aimed at the sustainability initiative and wants to find ways to encourage both home and community gardens.”
The students adopted the garden back in August after working with Barbara Bennett of the Kaua‘i Agricultural Initiative.
“It’s really nice the students have adopted the gardens and are spending time maintaining the garden,” Bennett said. “The Key Club also received a grant of $100 through the courtesy of Jeannette Otsuka-Chang and her husband.”
Bennett said since the gardens were dedicated in March, about 100 pounds of produce have been harvested and turned over to the Kaua‘i Food Bank.
“This served as a start for what community gardens can do,” Bennett said. “Since the start of the Mayor’s Aloha Garden, the U.S. Department of Agriculture called and requested a meeting on the steps of starting similar community gardens because of President Barrack Obama’s encouragement on the establishment of community gardens.”
Since then, Bennett said there was the recent dedication of a four-acre garden in Kilauea, and in Kekaha, a church has donated land for a community garden with members of the community organizing a committee to oversee the project.
Charlene said the Key Club students, including the two seniors spend one, or two times a week at the Mayor’s Aloha Garden.
“The students have already talked with Herb Keamoai, the school’s agriculture teacher, and are excited about learning how to pollinate corn they planted today,” Charlene said.
Tyler said in order to increase the productivity of the plot, the club will have to rely on off-site propagation of seeds and other ways to make the plot more efficient.
“There was too much water being applied, and the amount of irrigation was just cut back,” he said.
The seniors are also learning about disappointment after attempting to visit a seed exchange program and got lost without finding any seeds, Sunday.
Charlene said when the two seniors in charge of the project graduate, there will be others to succeed them in maintaining the garden because part of the project is to have the students recruit successors.
