The sound of the o‘o hitting rock greeted a neighborhood resident walking his dog on Rice Street on Thursday morning.
“Nice garden,” the resident said, passing Sylvia Vessa, who was busy prepping the hole for a kale seedling on a strip of land fronting the 808 Truck Rentals lot.
Vessa said the hot summer sun early in the morning was not ideal for planting, but she had an appointment, and the plants she obtained from the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau Agricultural Festival needed to be put in the ground.
“This is the Right on Rice Urban Farms,” Vessa said. “I started out about three years ago when a bunch of people and myself moved a bunch of rocks that had fallen from the old stone wall next to the Dani’s restaurant. This is for me, and everyone else in the community who wants to help.”
Vessa said people are welcome to volunteer when she works on the first and third Tuesday of the month from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Signups are done online at www.downtownlihue/gardens.
After securing permission to go ahead with the garden from landowner Po Yamamoto of Po’s Kitchen, Vessa secured the blessings of Jeremy Hillstrom, the owner of 808 Trucking, True Leaf Farm in Moloa‘a and the Healthgo Market to grow things in front of his truck rental business.
Hillstrom, in addition to giving Vessa his blessings, allowed the lady to use water from 808 Truck Rentals for her irrigation system. Additionally, she was provided with a small space behind the locked gates to store her equipment and supplies.
Unbeknownst to her, Dr. Addison Bulosan of the Rice Street Business Association secured a grant to help Vessa expand her efforts.
“I didn’t know he did that,” Vessa said. “But the grant made it possible for us to expand and grow the Right on Rice Urban Farms. We could improve the soil by adding a base of gravel, and topsoil. We put in ground cover so when we need to plant, we just make a puka in the ground cover. And, we can grow from one end of the 808 Truck Rental, all the way to the Dani’s boundary. ”
This is a far cry from Vessa’s original goal of just planting. The garden is part of the Downtown Lihu‘e’s
Lihu‘e Placemaking, Forestry and Gardens Initiative, a two-year effort to build valued community green spaces in Lihu‘e and a shared vision for future green infrastructure along Rice Street.
The initiative is spearheaded by the Rice Street Business Association and Better Block Hawai‘i with support from the county’s Office of Economic Development.
“I just wanted to show people that you can grow anything anywhere,” she said. “On top of that, I wanted people to realize how important agriculture is in producing food we can eat.”
Following three years of working on improving the soil, Vessa’s efforts are evidenced by a line of land taro fighting for roothold along the fence line of 808 Trucking. The line of taro is punctuated by pigeon peas that suffer from invasions of invasive pests, and a line of papaya trees that have their tops lopped off to prevent the plants from getting too high.
“This is something I saw on YouTube,” Vessa said. “You’re supposed to use a can to top the chopped part, but I don’t have a can so I just used plastic. Someone must’ve seen this because the other plants have all been chopped or broken without reason. We had to save the trees by wrapping them in plastic.”
Vessa said the idea behind her garden is not to sell commercially.
“I eat whatever I’m growing,” she said. “That good enough. I’m not sick. I’m healthy.”
•••
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 808-245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
