Here we go again - creating Pepe'ekeo Palm Paradise

[tinman10101]

great thread jason.  i always look forward to all your updates. 

we, hawaii pipe dreamers, live vicariously through your endeavors sir!  

[Hilo Jason]

2 hours ago, iDesign said:

Wow, that's grown a lot! This is the same plant as the one in the following thread, correct? If so, please post a copy there as well (if you don't mind). It's fun for those of us who own one to get a possible glimpse into the future!

 

Yeah. That’s the same Palm. I will post in that other thread as well. It’s 4 trunks total, just hard to tell at the angle of this photo. 

[Kim]

I see the serious fun has begun! What an amazing job your excavators did! It's going to be fantastic. I hadn't realized the immense progress you had made prior to this, just incredible. It's going to be a truly outstanding home and garden in a relatively short time. How many rocks will you place in your retaining walls per day? 😎 Bigger rocks are best -- heavier to move, but they will show your progress more rapidly. 😉 Keep up the good work!

 

 

 

[Mangosteen]

Hi Jason,

My place is just south of yours near the old Low Store. You home looks fantastic. I need to stop by next time I'm on the island. I know right where it is. I'm wondering if I could DM you and get the name of the guy who does the baling for you. I have almost 8 acres.

[Hilo Jason]

11 hours ago, Kim said:

I see the serious fun has begun! What an amazing job your excavators did! It's going to be fantastic. I hadn't realized the immense progress you had made prior to this, just incredible. It's going to be a truly outstanding home and garden in a relatively short time. How many rocks will you place in your retaining walls per day? 😎 Bigger rocks are best -- heavier to move, but they will show your progress more rapidly. 😉 Keep up the good work!

 

 

 

You are welcome to come by and check it out in person anytime.  As for the rock wall, I have no idea and am honestly overwhelmed everytime I look at how large it is!  I've received a couple of quotes for a professional rock wall build and those are even more overwhelming though! I guess we'll see what happens, all of our time and money is going into the house build and trying to get it going, so the rock wall might have to wait a while.  

[Hilo Jason]

5 hours ago, Mangosteen said:

Hi Jason,

My place is just south of yours near the old Low Store. You home looks fantastic. I need to stop by next time I'm on the island. I know right where it is. I'm wondering if I could DM you and get the name of the guy who does the baling for you. I have almost 8 acres.

That's a great looking home you have, I love the clerestory windows!  Feel free to reach out when you are on island and I'd be happy to have you stop by.  And send me a DM and I can talk to you about the baling situation.

 

[Hilo Jason]

It's been several months since I've updated this thread.  In August we received our approved building permits so it's been a busy time overseeing and coordinating the house build.  

One of the last posts I made showed the amount of excavating we had to do in order to create a flat area for our garage to be built on (our house is being built into the hillside with retaining walls and massive footings).  This excavation created 200 feet of cut terraces.  But first we needed to retain them before planting on them.  Time to bring out the rock wall guys as this was far too large of a project for me to take on myself! 

With the first wall complete and backfilled, work could then begin on the upper wall

 

[Hilo Jason]

After about one month of work and almost 200 tons of rock, both walls were completed.  It's amazing to watch these guys work with these rocks, some of which weigh well over 100 pounds each.  It's like an enormous puzzle being put together, complete with cement, rebar and drain pipes.  

Above the professionally built walls, I dry stacked a small wall that is about 2 feet tall and runs about 65 feet long.  This would become a skinny planter area that I was eager to plant out. 

My daughter helped me plant out this planter yesterday and I'm very happy with how it turned out.  From left to right are groups of 3 palms - Loxoccocus Rupicola, Nomanbya and then Hyophorbe Indica (Red).  Beyond that is an already planted row of about 8 or 9 Euterpe Oleracea that will give us nice privacy very soon.  Behind that, along the fence is my hedge of Pinanga Coronata.  

I am currently now planning out what to plant on that large middle terrace.  It is 10 - 12 feet wide and 200 feet long!  Hopefully over the next few weeks I will have that in the works and will try to update when I have time.  

[Hilo Jason]

Some random pictures from the garden:

First fruit from the orchard is Abiu

Chrysalidocarpus Robusta Hybrid growing fast and looking good:

Wider angle also showing a Chrysalidocarpus Prestonianus on the right:

I noticed that one of my Chrysalidocarpus Prestonianus Hybrids planted along the driveway is about to split in half, that should be interesting to see happen at this size! 

[Hilo Jason]

This is the first area that was planted out about 2 - 2.5 years ago.  Filling in nicely and several palms are now seeding. 

Last picture for now is of an incredible sunset from a couple of weeks ago.  Thanks for looking.  

[Hilo Jason]

Started planting out the middle terrace with some big (and soon to be very big) palms. Thankfully my daughter helps me plant out these large 15 gallon palms that are a bit too much for me to handle on my own.  Chrysalidocarpus Prestonianus:

2 C. Prestonianus with a Clinistigma Ponapense in between them which should quickly shoot up and outgrow the Prestos.

A group of 3 Marojejya Darianii. We planted these in early January and then we went in to a couple weeks of full sun and no rain so I’ve since covered these in shade cloth as they got burned pretty bad. I’m hoping these acclimate and can make it in this coastal sunny location. 
 

[Hilo Jason]

Today (Feb. 3) saw some new plantings. The middle curve of the terrace got this Chrysalidocarpus Leptocheillos hybrid:

 
 

Small Hyophorbe Verschafeltii on each side of the Leotocheillos hybrid:

 
 

Leptocheillos hybrid side angle with Prestonianus further down:

[Hilo Jason]

Last plantings of the day were these three Chrysalidocarpus Nauseosus (I think that’s the name now, was Dypsis Nauseosa) lining part of the driveway. The house is now framed and trusses were put up this past week so I’m now working on planting the driveway. I was holding off til after the truss and large lumber deliveries had to be brought down the driveway. 
 

 

slightly different angle showing 4 recently planted Iriartea Deltoidea that are also a bit sun and wind damaged but should get through it. 
 

 

thanks for looking, more soon! 

[Harry’s Palms]

Thanks for sharing. This really shows the rapid growth rate over there. I had a friend who retired years ago and built a house on Kauai. He planted a row of Royal Palms in front of his house . When I went over a few years later they were huge! I was told that the growth rate is 3-1 , compared to here in Southern California. I think it is much faster! Your place is looking awesome.

[redant]

What an awesome adventure. looks amazing.

[Kim]

Exciting times for you! Glad you are documenting the progress here, thanks!

[Brad52]

I had to chuckle as your daughter is growing faster than the palms!

 I have given up on the giant solid leaf palms here 8 blocks from the ocean but you have soil so yours will likely do better but mine burn right up, lost 6 marojejya so far and the really nice joey I bought is about 1/4 original size.

[Dypsisdean]

Was terrific.

Now fantastic.

Soon to be stupendous. 

Thanks for all the pics. 

[bgl]

Jason,

Wow, very impressive! Amazing progress and I know how exciting this must be for you.  And we both know there is MUCH more to come. Both palms and excitement! 😀

Bo-Göran

[Hilo Jason]

7 hours ago, Brad52 said:

I had to chuckle as your daughter is growing faster than the palms!

 I have given up on the giant solid leaf palms here 8 blocks from the ocean but you have soil so yours will likely do better but mine burn right up, lost 6 marojejya so far and the really nice joey I bought is about 1/4 original size.

Yeah, no kidding although I think she is done growing and plants are just getting started! 
 

I’m hoping the Marojejya pull through. The timing of planting them could not have been worse as we went into that incredibly dry and very sunny January. I also have a couple nice potted Pelagodoxa that I hope to plant. I think those will do a bit better but still not 100% sure about them. 

[Hilo Jason]

5 hours ago, Dypsisdean said:

Was terrific.

Now fantastic.

Soon to be stupendous. 

Thanks for all the pics. 

Thanks Dean!  Feel free to stop by if you’re on this side of the island. Same goes for my Hilo garden 

[Hilo Jason]

And just for kicks, I thought I would show what happens when you design a curved driveway, going downhill, lined with palms:  not fun for delivering trusses!  These trusses are 50’ long and were delivered on a semi truck and slid off on the main road that our place is off of. We had to rent a large forklift to haul them down, one at a time. They then got stacked and later the boom crane truck came to install them. 

 

[tinman10101]

15 hours ago, Hilo Jason said:

And just for kicks, I thought I would show what happens when you design a curved driveway, going downhill, lined with palms:  not fun for delivering trusses!  These trusses are 50’ long and were delivered on a semi truck and slid off on the main road that our place is off of. We had to rent a large forklift to haul them down, one at a time. They then got stacked and later the boom crane truck came to install them. 

 

 

 

wow thanks for sharing jason.  very cool to see your house construction as well.  hope you continue to show updates on the structure transformation too. 

i may have missed it but what were you going to do with your previous amazing palm property ... sorry if im prying and would understand if you do not want to disclose.   just curious since its a beautiful garden as well but starting over in hawaii is just a couple of years away as opposed to socal. 

[Hilo Jason]

3 hours ago, tinman10101 said:

wow thanks for sharing jason.  very cool to see your house construction as well.  hope you continue to show updates on the structure transformation too. 

i may have missed it but what were you going to do with your previous amazing palm property ... sorry if im prying and would understand if you do not want to disclose.   just curious since its a beautiful garden as well but starting over in hawaii is just a couple of years away as opposed to socal. 

We plan on selling our house in Hilo once we move into the new home.  We entertained the idea of keeping it as a rental but we're not really interested in being landlords, keeping up with maintenance, etc...  Hoping to sell it to someone who will appreciate the garden we created there.  

[Tyrone]

On 4/21/2023 at 3:53 PM, Hilo Jason said:

The newest member of our family, Suubi, checking out her new yard. This poor girl was tied to a pole and abandoned. She now has acres to run wild on!

chrysolidocarpus Hovomantsina hybrid:

dypsis sp??

thanks for looking!

Suubi is so lucky to have been found by you and now lives in heaven in an awesome garden. Well done.

[Hilo Jason]

A few more driveway palms went in this weekend. First up was this Chrysalidocarpus Mananjarensis which is now the 3rd in its group on the driveway. 
 

Planted out on the left. On the right is a mananjarensis that was planted a year or so ago

 

Up next and just below the group of Mananjarensis are 2 Chrysalidocarpus Malcomberi that were in 15 gallons pots and needing to get in the ground. Here’s the first one:

zoomed in on some markings on the petioles:

[Hilo Jason]

Here’s the 2nd Malcomberi with more coloring and flecking on the petioles and new spear.  Very similar to the mealy bug markings on Mananjarensis, but regular leaflets, not irregular like Mananjarensis.  I have seen and bought several different “Malcomberi” here so it will be interesting to see what these grow into. 

planted out, furthest down on the left of the driveway

And here’s the last photo for now, our roofing is being put on the house so I was able to go up on the roof to get this picture looking back at the garden.  It always amazes me what can happen in just 2 years or so here with some hard work, sweat and 100+ inches of rain each year!
 

 

[TropicalGardenSpain]

Hi Jason! What an amazing project! I love the curved driveway that you have created and of course all the amazing palms you have added! congratulations on the design work involved! planning for a blank canvas can be overwhelming but I can see from previous threads that you have very good experience in that 👏.  I am looking forward to following this thread, its a dream of mine to do something similar one day on a blank piece of land (I´ll wait till you have finished before I ask if you would recommend it 😄). I did have one question for you that might be obvious but I live in a very different climate. Do you have to worry about irrigating plants? Do you water them when they go in the ground and then they will fend for themselves? 

[Hilo Jason]

17 hours ago, TropicalGardenSpain said:

Hi Jason! What an amazing project! I love the curved driveway that you have created and of course all the amazing palms you have added! congratulations on the design work involved! planning for a blank canvas can be overwhelming but I can see from previous threads that you have very good experience in that 👏.  I am looking forward to following this thread, its a dream of mine to do something similar one day on a blank piece of land (I´ll wait till you have finished before I ask if you would recommend it 😄). I did have one question for you that might be obvious but I live in a very different climate. Do you have to worry about irrigating plants? Do you water them when they go in the ground and then they will fend for themselves? 

Thank you for the compliments.  I am thoroughly enjoying creating the garden from a blank slate and would recommend it if you get the chance.  Although starting with established plants can be nice as you will have canopy for more shade loving plants.  I don't have that yet.  

Our climate is very wet here on the East Side (wet side) of the Big Island of Hawaii.  Last year this garden received 130" of rain.  I do water palms when I first plant them, and then usually after that they fend for themselves.  If we go through a dry spell, I will do some additional watering for newly planted palms.  This new garden has dense soil that retains the water well and every palm gets a layer of mulch to help keep the soil moist as well.  

[TropicalGardenSpain]

3 hours ago, Hilo Jason said:

Thank you for the compliments.  I am thoroughly enjoying creating the garden from a blank slate and would recommend it if you get the chance.  Although starting with established plants can be nice as you will have canopy for more shade loving plants.  I don't have that yet.  

Our climate is very wet here on the East Side (wet side) of the Big Island of Hawaii.  Last year this garden received 130" of rain.  I do water palms when I first plant them, and then usually after that they fend for themselves.  If we go through a dry spell, I will do some additional watering for newly planted palms.  This new garden has dense soil that retains the water well and every palm gets a layer of mulch to help keep the soil moist as well.  

Living the dream then! it is a perfect place for a beautiful palm garden then. I have done my garden from scratch here so I know about the issue with not having shade especially with our hot dry summers it can really damage palms more than the cold weather here but slowly things are starting to create some shade! I just wish I got to position the house too but one day I´d like to take on a similar project to yours and would love It to be in a similar climate 😅 

Thank you for the information and keep up the great work 👏

[Hilo Jason]

I’ve been busy overseeing the house build but was able to get a few more palms planted recently. 
 

First up was this Chrysalidocarpus Leucomalla:

 

and just beyond that and seen in the picture above is a newly planted Roystonea Violacea.  
 

Here’s the opposite angle, looking up the driveway.  I have another Roystonea Violacea that will be planted on the opposite side of the driveway within a few weeks (after the last 20’ lumber delivery arrives)

 

[Hilo Jason]

I finished the south side of the driveway plantings with this Chrysalidocarpus sp. Mony Mony. This appears to be a variation of Chrysalidocarpus Prestonianus. The few mature ones I’ve seen in gardens here on the big island are massive!  
 

 

looking down the driveway:

last planting for now is this Bismarckia in the middle of my Madagascar planter:

I look forward to the large splash of silver / grey that this Bismarck will provide to this section of the garden. 
 

[Hilo Jason]

Here’s a “before and after photo” of this planter area that was the first planter area worked on. This is about 2.5 years of growth!  Pretty amazing

2022:

2024:

[iDesign]

Your Leucomalla is getting BIG now! I bought a couple small ones hoping my daughter (a fellow plant lover) might live to see it grow up. That palm is slooooow. But yours is already awesome! I also very much appreciate your use of color and contrast in your designs. 🥰

[Hilo Jason]

10 hours ago, iDesign said:

Your Leucomalla is getting BIG now! I bought a couple small ones hoping my daughter (a fellow plant lover) might live to see it grow up. That palm is slooooow. But yours is already awesome! I also very much appreciate your use of color and contrast in your designs. 🥰

thanks for the compliments.
 

I will try to take an updated photo of my larger Leucomalla for you. It is definitely beyond the slow stage now. But yeah, when these are small they are agonizingly slow!  
 

 

[Tracy]

6 hours ago, Hilo Jason said:

It is definitely beyond the slow stage now. But yeah, when these are small they are agonizingly slow!  

Plants just grow so much faster over there as you know from personal experience.  Add that great soil you have at the new place compared to what you were planting things in at your Hilo property, and the analogy of planting on steroids can't do it justice.  Just amazing how beautiful your new place is and how it improves with each update!

[RainforestCafe]

Your garden looks awesome! The growth rate is crazy!!

Also the deep green color on those palms is unreal. I may have missed it earlier in the thread, but do you have to fertilize them, or is it just really great soil?

[Hilo Jason]

On 4/9/2024 at 4:13 PM, RainforestCafe said:

Your garden looks awesome! The growth rate is crazy!!

Also the deep green color on those palms is unreal. I may have missed it earlier in the thread, but do you have to fertilize them, or is it just really great soil?

Thank you! 
 

I fertilize with a granular slow release fertilizer as needed. I also mulch heavily which seems to really help. 

[Hilo Jason]

On 4/8/2024 at 8:29 PM, iDesign said:

Your Leucomalla is getting BIG now! I bought a couple small ones hoping my daughter (a fellow plant lover) might live to see it grow up. That palm is slooooow. But yours is already awesome! I also very much appreciate your use of color and contrast in your designs. 🥰

Hey Stacy, here’s my larger Leucomalla.  Definitely past the slow stage! 

[Hilo Jason]

And here’s Chrysalidocarpus Hovomantsina Hybrid (with a juvenile true form behind it to the left)