I didn’t do much yesterday, so I’ll risk being a little repetitive to talk about the next part of my garden project at school.

I got a few natives to put by the church/preschool entrance. I wanted the preschool teachers to have some native plants right outside their door. There is a big planter by the front door that has some things growing in it. I thought maybe I could just do a few plantings in the corner:

As I was asking around, I’ve been a little surprised to find out that everyone I talk to would like to see a change in that planter. I have been happy to hear that. There is a giant clump of some kind of palm tree that I thought was a little wild looking, and I’ve found out everyone else thinks so too. In fact, Russell is going to help me (actually, I’m helping him) cut down those trees on Wednesday. I could potentially have the entire planter to plant natives! Woo hoo!

I’ve finished the native Hawaiian plant display at school. Unless I decide to dress them up with some rocks or something. But I’ve finished the plantings. Here is the progression in pictures:

I am really pleased with the little engraved labels I got. They look fancy.

It’s the Hawaiian name, the Latin name, and then what kind of native plant it is. There are three categories of “native plant”:

Polynesian Introduced – brought by the first people to settle the islands
Indigenous – not brought here by people, but also grows other places in the world
Endemic – not brought here by people, and does not appear naturally anyplace else in the world except Hawaii

I even got some endangered species! Cool! I will do a little write-up and presentation to my fellow teachers so they can talk about it with their classes if they want to. Even if they don’t, it will be a cool display for kids and parents to see every time they walk past.

I made the next step in my school gardening project with native Hawaiian plants. I got the plants from the botanical garden people yesterday. Woo hoo!

It was already afternoon by the time I could pick them up, so I just left them by the pots at school, and I will plant them today.

While I was in Nebraska, I ordered the plant stakes and engraved labels for the plants, so I can put those in the pots as well.

I’m so excited!