In The Garden
Saturday, March 31, 2001
KEN SAKAMOTO / STAR-BULLETIN
Colors and textures of foliage fill every corner
of Brian Choy's garden.
IT'S NOT A NORMAL DAY, meaning hot and dry, in Brian Choy's garden. Lei garden
Brian Choy battles slugs and beetles
For more photos from this article,
to create an idyllic native lei garden
see today's Features section online.
Today, a thick blanket of clouds blocks the sun and sends a steady downpour onto Choy's 60-foot-by-15-foot plot, which, despite the usual shortage of rainfall, has thrived in the imu-like climate of Kaimuki for 15 years.
"This is actually good," says Choy before he steps out into the rain for his weekly garden chores. "The plants will get plenty water, and I guess I'll get watered, too. But a little water never hurts anybody; it's all part of a gardener's job anyway."
Putting out extra slug bait will be part of his job today. Spurred by the rain, the hungry slugs will have an easier time creeping around the garden at night in search of their favorite meals, the tender spring pansies that are in peak bloom now.
"Slugs, they're every gardener's nightmare. Them and the Chinese rose beetles; those two are the worst. The rose beetles are truly voracious. They can eat through a plant in no time at all.
"They are the only creatures I know that can eat and mate at the same time. One can be eating and the other one is right on its back. They don't stop eating for anything; that's how voracious they are," Choy says.
His prized 18-foot-tall yellow and deep-red lehua trees, two of the original plantings in the garden, are safe from the nocturnal beetles -- relatively speaking. Despite being out of their natural habitat, which is the cool and wet mountain region, the trees are healthy and laden with fluffy blossoms. They can withstand a ravenous attack, but a juvenile yellow lehua barely 2 feet tall may not.
Choy protects the young plant by putting a rosemary bush next to it. The pungent scent of the herb has staved off the beetles somewhat.
"The beetles will always eat no matter what, but they don't seem to bother it as much. I know I can't stop the beetles altogether. As long as they don't eat too much, I am willing to share," he says.
Nature should be allowed to take its course, Choy says. That means doing without man-made chemicals that are harmful to the environment, except for slug bait, which has become a necessary evil in his garden.
"I have no choice. It's either slug bait, or come out here in the middle of the night with chopsticks and a coffee can," he says.
For a while, he picked slugs up with chopsticks and dunked them into a can of salt water, but the nightly routine grew tiresome. It wasn't the labor-intensive pest-control duties that got to him; it was the commute to his garden, which is at his brother's house in Kaimuki, from his condominium in Moiliili.
"Well, you can call this Brian's secret garden," says Choy, who cockroached the side yard at his brother's home. The garden has the blessing of his brother and sister-in-law, both award-winning lei makers like Choy, who share in the harvest.
His brother helps by watering the yard every day, and Choy drops by every weekend to spend half a day tending the plants.
The garden started small. Choy first grew lei-making flowers in planter boxes lining one side of the driveway. After the driveway was converted into lawn, Choy slowly took over by making plantings one patch at a time.
The garden provides him with a steady supply of flowers and greenery for his lei, giving him greater inspiration and freedom to create contemporary versions of the traditional Hawaiian craft.
" I always tell my lei-making students that if you want to make leis, you should grow your own material. You can always buy some (supplemental) stuff but if you are going to buy your materials, you might as well just buy the lei," he says.
The fun is the whole process, beginning with a garden and ending with a beautiful lei, he says.
Choy's interest in lei making began in the mid-'70s when he took a ethno-botany class from Hawaiian botanical expert Beatrice Krauss. Students had to learn about plants and lei making, and Choy began seeking out master lei makers to learn their techniques.
"When I started, there were no classes. I used to go out to the fairs and talk to them and ask them how they do it. I have to say they were very, very generous with the information."
Back then, lei-making supplies were hard to come by also. Lei makers depended on friends and relatives who had access to Hawaiian plants rare in urban areas.
"If you wanted to make leis, you really had to grow your own plants. Things are very different now. You can buy so many Native Hawaiian plants in the garden stores," Choy says.
Which makes it easy to begin a lei garden. In addition to the Native Hawaiian plants, mainland spring flowers such as pansies and lavender help add more colors to the garden, and the lei.
Choy advises gardeners to learn conditions suitable for each plant. Don't put the cool-weather or moisture-loving plants in direct hot sun, and in general don't over water or over fertilize any plant.
If your garden is in a hot and dry location, consider installing a sprinkler system to save yourself from daily watering.
The dense red dirt common throughout the islands isn't the best for plants. Choy mixes his own soil -- half potting soil and half cinder -- to give his garden good drainage. Plants particularly vulnerable to over watering are kept in pots or planted in mounds above the garden soil.
Choy uses a slow-release balanced fertilizer, to save time and prevent chemical burns on the plants. But he does not apply fertilizer on the Native Hawaiian plants.
And don't take the demise of a plant personally. "That's the trial and tribulations of being a gardener. It doesn't matter what you do or don't do, plants will die on their own," Choy says.
Growing a lei garden, or any garden, is a learning process. Learn by watching the plants but just be sure to keep your enthusiasm in check, Choy says.
"This is not a cheap hobby. Once you get started, you'll become a plant addict. You will always want to buy another plant. It never ends."
Gardening Calendar
Suzanne Tswei's gardening column runs Fridays in Today.
You can write her at the Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, Suite 7-210, Honolulu, HI, 96813
or email stswei@starbulletin.com
