Cultivate your lanai
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
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For 30 years, Pat Wassel carefully tended plants with the solid ground of a backyard firmly beneath her feet. She could grow anything she wanted, from limes and coconuts in Kailua to torch ginger and gardenia in Nu'uanu.
But after she moved last year to an 18th-floor unit in the Admiral Thomas condominium, Wassel discovered the frustrations of gardening on a man-made cliff.
She wasn't sure what would thrive on the 10-by-14-foot lanai, perched on the edge of an unforgiving climate. Plants there would be baked by an afternoon sun, dried by buffeting winds and regularly dusted with the soot of urban Honolulu.
It took research, planning and a stack of old Sunset magazines before Wassel was ready to dive into what she calls "container gardening."
Wassel has worked for months to create her lanai garden but isn't finished. She wants to grow "hardy" native Hawaiian plants alongside 2-foot-tall grasses and succulents such as jade plants. Her goal is to arrange them in a way that softens the corners of the lanai, which she and her husband have turned into an outdoor dining area.
"You can't have an English garden," she said. "You have to figure out what will work with where you live and learn to love that thing."
A lot of your success or at least your personal satisfaction depends on what you plant, said Richard Criley, a professor of horticulture at the University of Hawai'i and the author of an online brochure on balcony gardens. You have to decide early on just how much space you want to dedicate to your plants and how much debris you want to clean up.
"If you have a small lanai and you want to sit out there, plants that are really branchy are not things you want," Criley said. "If you are willing to sacrifice a bit of the view, you can have things that grow tall."
When buying the plant, be sure to ask about its growing habits will it grow like a column, or will it spread out?
Criley often asks budding high-rise gardeners: What effect are you trying to create?
"There are some people who just collect clutter, and a lot of times you see a plant they have had for a while," he said. "Pretty soon, they have all these pots out there and things don't look good. They can't bear to throw them away. Plants, in some respects, are like furniture or cars. You keep them for a long time, and then you decide to get a new one."
"You can't have an English garden. You have to figure out what will work with where you live and learn to love that thing"
DETAILS COUNT
Creating a slice of nature on your lanai your backyard in the sky is not difficult. All it takes is attention to detail, said Richard Criley, a professor of horticulture at the University of Hawai'i and the author of an online brochure on plants that grow well in containers and are suitable for lanais, balconies or patios.
TIPS FOR CULTIVATING A LANAI GARDEN
Start by knowing which direction your lanai faces. That's important because it determines how much sun and wind your plants will be exposed to, as well as what you can grow. A lanai that faces south or west is practically a different climate than one that faces north or east. "It's different on the real sunny side of a building," Criley said. "The heat stress is really tough. You won't be able to grow plants with real thin leaves."
Proper watering, of course, is crucial. Criley recommends you water until you see water draining out the bottom. Then let the plant approach a slight wilting point and let the surface of the soil dry before watering again.
There is no perfect medium in which to grow your balcony plants, Criley cautions. Most of what you can buy from a garden shop may not weigh enough to keep the plant and the container from tipping over. Drainage rocks or broken clay pots at the bottom can help keep your plant stable.
A key factor is drainage but not so much that water drips onto your neighbor's lanai below, Criley said. "A plant up in the air with wind swirling about will need more water," Criley said. "You need to have a medium that will hold water, but not excessive amounts of water. The root system of the plant takes up the water and if there is no air in the soil, the roots die."
Complicating the situation: Many of the artistic pots that homeowners choose do not have drainage holes. Solve that by putting the plant in another container with drainage holes that fits in the larger pot. Be sure to put a layer of stones in the larger pot so that the plant does not sit in water.
Resist the urge to over-fertilize. Because your plant is in a pot, you risk a root-damaging salt buildup in the soil. "You don't need to feed it every day or every week," Criley said. "Every other week is OK even once a month on plants that do not require a lot of water.
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.
