How-To Guides

Sheet Mulching

Smother grass and weeds under cardboard and organic matter, and let soil life turn it into rich, loose soil. It suits both the wet side and the dry side.

• Time: 2–4 hours for a 10×10 ft bed
• Best time: Start of the wet season (about October–November), or any time you can water it in

You’ll need: plain brown cardboard, compost or fresh greens, coarse mulch (wood chips, leaves), water, a knife and gloves.

1. Cut everything low. Leave the cuttings in place; dig out runners of aggressive grasses along the edges.
2. Soak the ground. Covered dry soil stays dry for a long time.
3. Feed the soil. A thin layer of compost, aged manure, or fresh greens on the cut grass.
4. Lay the cardboard. Remove tape and staples, overlap at least 6 inches, and run it a foot past the bed edge.
5. Wet it thoroughly. Soaked cardboard sits flat and breaks down faster.
6. Add 1–2 inches of compost, thicker where you plan to plant.
7. Top with 3–4 inches of coarse mulch, kept a few inches back from tree trunks.
8. Plant through it. Cut an X in the cardboard, fill with compost, and plant. Ground covers can go in right away.
9. Top it up every few months, and never leave soil bare.

Want the full guide? Soil and Living Mulch — Coming soon

Propagating from Cuttings

Many of the best food-forest plants for Kauaʻi grow easily from cuttings, so one healthy plant can fill a whole bed for free.

• Time: 15 minutes to take; a few weeks to root
• Best time: Year-round; cloudy, mild days are easiest

1. Choose healthy growth. Vigorous, pest-free stems that aren’t flowering heavily.
2. Cut the right piece with clean, sharp pruners (see the list below).
3. Strip the lower leaves and halve any large ones.
4. Plant it in moist potting mix or a mulched bed, with one or two nodes below the surface. Woody cuttings go in right-side up.
5. Keep it shaded and moist, damp but not soggy, until it roots.
6. Check for roots. New leaves and a gentle resistance when you tug mean it has rooted.

Easy plants and how to cut them

• Sweet potato: vine tips, 8–12 in; plant direct with several nodes buried.
• Okinawa, longevity & sissoo spinach: tip cuttings, 4–6 in, straight into mulch.
• Katuk: firm stem cuttings, 8–12 in.
• Chaya: woody sections, 12+ in; wear gloves and let cut ends dry for a day or two.
• Cassava: mature stem sections, 8–12 in, at an angle, buds up.
• Moringa: thick branch sections, 3–6 ft, a third of the length deep.
• Gliricidia: straight branches, 3–6 ft; they root as living fence posts.
• Sugarcane (kō): cane sections with 2–3 nodes, laid flat and covered lightly.
• Pineapple: the leafy top; strip lower leaves and let it dry a few days.
• Comfrey (Bocking 14): 2–3 in root pieces; plant only where you want it to stay.

Bananas, ginger, turmeric, and taro grow from divisions (pups, rhizomes, and cut tops) rather than cuttings.

Want the full guide? Backyard Nursery — Coming soon

Organic Pest Control

Work up a ladder: fix the cause first, use your hands and water next, and spray only when the damage is real.

• Time: A 10-minute walk-through, once or twice a week
• Best time: Year-round; pests build fastest in warm, dry spells

1. Look closely and often. Check leaf undersides and new growth, and identify the pest before treating it.
2. Fix the conditions. Healthy soil, good mulch, the right plant for your rainfall, and steady water prevent most problems.
3. Invite the helpers. Flowering herbs and diverse plantings keep lady beetles, lacewings, and hoverflies around.
4. Remove pests by hand or blast them off with a strong spray of water.
5. Control the ants. Bait stations and sticky trunk bands often clear aphids, mealybugs, and scale. Test unfamiliar ants for little fire ant.
6. Use the gentlest spray that works, in the late afternoon when bees aren’t foraging, following the label exactly.

Common Kauaʻi pests

• Fruit flies: destroy fallen and damaged fruit, bag young fruit, and harvest promptly.
• Aphids, whiteflies, mealybugs, scale: water spray, ant control, insecticidal soap or horticultural oil.
• Chinese rose beetle: hand-pick at night with a flashlight; row cover for young plants.
• Caterpillars: hand-pick, or Bt (only affects caterpillars).
• Slugs and snails: iron phosphate bait, beer traps, and fewer hiding spots. Always wear gloves.
• Rats: pick up fallen fruit, cover compost, and use enclosed snap traps out of reach of pets and birds.

Want the full guide? Pest and Harvest Field Guide — Coming soon

Preparing a Food Forest for Hurricane Season

Hurricane season in the Central Pacific runs from June 1 to November 30. Good design and a little preparation decide whether a food forest recovers in months or years.

• Time: A weekend before June, plus a few hours when a storm is forecast
• Best time: April–May for pruning and staking; review again in August

Before the season (April–May)

1. Prune for wind, don’t top. Thin dense canopies; never cut trees back to stubs.
2. Clean up palms. Remove dead fronds and mature coconuts, and check crowns for rhinoceros beetle damage.
3. Check tree health for leaning trees, cracked trunks, and rot near the base.
4. Stake young trees loosely with soft ties; remove them after a year.
5. Strengthen windbreaks with mixed heights (pigeon pea, gliricidia, banana, and taller trees).
6. Secure water and gear. Anchor water tanks, and plan where loose tools and pots will go.

When a storm is forecast

1. Harvest what you can (breadfruit, bananas, papaya, citrus).
2. Clear the yard of anything that can blow away.
3. Protect seedlings and cuttings in a sheltered spot.
4. Stay safe. Don’t climb ladders or trees once winds pick up. Follow KEMA alerts.

After the storm

1. Safety first. Stay away from downed power lines and leaning trees.
2. Stand up small trees quickly and stake them if the roots are still mostly attached.
3. Make clean cuts on broken branches; don’t over-prune damaged trees.
4. Turn debris into mulch, spread across beds rather than piled (piles breed rhinoceros beetles).
5. Replant fast growers. Banana, papaya, sweet potato, pigeon pea, and perennial greens produce food and shelter within months while slower trees recover.
6. Check your water system for damage and contamination before using catchment water again.

Building a Swale

A level trench along the contour, with a planted mound (berm) on its downhill side, catches runoff and lets it soak in. First check What Is a Swale?; on steep or wet ground, something else usually works better.

• Time: A weekend for about 50 feet by hand
• Best time: Late dry season (about September–October)

Before you dig

• Gentle slope (roughly 2–15%) and soil that drains reasonably well.
• Overflow won’t reach your house, septic system, or a neighbor.
• You’ve called 811 to have underground utilities marked.
• The job is small enough to skip a County permit. See Before You Dig.

You’ll need: an A-frame or water level, stakes, a shovel and mattock, a rake, plenty of mulch, plants for the berm, and rocks or vetiver clumps for the spillway.

1. Find the contour. Starting at the spillway end, stake level points every few feet across the slope.
2. Smooth the line into a gentle curve, as close to level as you can.
3. Plan the spillway first, where overflow can leave gently onto stable, planted ground, never toward a building or neighbor.
4. Dig the trench on the uphill side, 1–2 feet wide and 6–18 inches deep, piling soil downhill. The bottom must be dead level.
5. Shape the berm into a smooth mound about as high as the trench is deep.
6. Build the spillway a few inches lower than the rest of the berm, lined with rocks or plant clumps.
7. Plant and mulch right away. Trees on or below the berm, never in the trench; fill the trench with mulch.
8. Test it. Water should spread along the whole length and soak in within 24–48 hours.

Want the full guide? Catch Every Drop — Coming soon