As Honolulu Community Gardens celebrate their 50th anniversary with a family friendly event Saturday at Foster Botanical Garden, members are exploring the past and celebrating the present while preparing to usher in a period of exciting new growth.
History
Founded in 1975, the Honolulu Recreational Community Gardening Program was established by then-Mayor Frank Fasi to offer urban residents a unique form of recreation.
Its original goal, as described by the program's first coordinator, Bonnie Goodell, was to provide citizens with the opportunity to "care continuously for the health of a small plot of earth" and engage with the environment, even in the densely populated areas of the island.
The first Honolulu Community Garden was established in 1975 in Makiki as TheGarden. “It didn’t stick so it’s Makiki Community Garden” today, said Liane Briggs, co-chair of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Honolulu Recreational Community Gardening Program.
(photo courtesy of Honolulu Garden Council, Anna Mines)
Since the first community garden was established in Makiki 50 years ago, the program has grown to 11 gardens of different sizes around the island. While the Department of Parks and Recreation oversees the program and establishes overall rules and regulations, each community garden elects its own officers who manage the operations.
“Each garden has its own personality,” said Liane Briggs, a member of the Kaneohe Community Garden who is one of the organizers of the 50th anniversary celebration on Saturday.
“One great thing about this event that’s coming up: We get to meet each other and chat, because we don’t have many opportunities to do that. I’m hoping there will be more networking going on among the gardens.”
Foster Community Garden at the Foster Botanical Garden
50th Anniversary Celebration
While the event is an opportunity for the community gardeners to share their history and showcase their efforts, Liane and her co-chair, Leonard Smothermon of the Hawaii Kai Community Garden, have been working since last year on a full slate of activities and attractions for the public to enjoy.
Schedule for the day
Participating organizations
Here are some highlights:
The event takes place 10 am-2 pm at the Foster Botanical Garden, which is offering free admission for the day. Features of the garden include a conservatory, outdoor butterfly garden, palm garden, prehistoric glen cycad collection, some exceptional trees, and a gift Shop.
Docents will be positioned along the paths to provide little talks about the garden. Meet at the Bodhi tree near the front entrance for a free tour.
The community gardens will be located at the tent on the grassy slope beyond the conservatory. Activities include seed starter giveaways, fabric dye education, keiki planting, air layering demonstration, plant sales, and more.
Exhibitors on the main lawn will feature booths from organizations offering education on topics including invasive species, worm vermicomposting, landscaping, butterflies and more.
Food trucks Simply Ono Grindz and Kona Ice will be selling island lunch plates and shaved ice.
The Raquet Band will perform on the main stage from 11 am-1:30 pm.
“And then as you walk around the conservatory classroom there will be our Honolulu Community Gardens historical tent … (with) photos and articles about how the gardens were first started,” Liane said.
Event Map
Event Parking
Call for historical photos
As part of the anniversary preparations, the committee is conducting research to help fill in the blanks about the history of each garden, and the public is being asked to help.
“We're inviting people who have stories and photographs to come forward,” Liane said. “We'd like to get interviews, probably after the event, but we want to make contact with people who know about the garden’s history. Maybe their family members have gardened there before, or if they've lived in the neighborhood and know histories — we'd like to gather those stories.”
To contribute to the living history project, contact [email protected].
‘Everybody should be gardening’
As the army of community garden volunteers prepare for the historic milestone event on Saturday, Liane hopes that the day will inspire others to share their love of gardening.
“We want to promote interest in the community — you can do this too, you can do it at home, because everybody should be at least container gardening at home. Or even if you have a garden plot, you’re going to be starting plants in little containers. Everybody should be gardening.”
Liane Briggs, co-chair of the Honolulu Recreational Community Gardening Program’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, is looking forward to planting her pineapple starters once the Kaneohe Community Garden reopens in October.
For Liane, who has been involved in the program for 15 years, the community gardens have allowed her to enjoy the hobby despite not having a yard of her own. “I live in a townhouse so I’m able to have container pots, a container garden, but for digging in the ‘aina, the community garden is the best for me.”
Aside from connecting with the land, she’s enjoyed the camaraderie and fellowship with her fellow gardeners at Kaneohe Community Garden, where they’ve thrown an annual Christmas potluck with door prizes and their own ukulele band composed of garden members.
Since January, when the garden closed for repairs to a retaining wall, members have continued to hold meetups for lunch and ukulele practice. Kaneohe Community Garden is scheduled to reopen on Oct. 18, but there’s even more exciting news ahead for the program.
The Kaneohe Community Garden, shown in August 2024, will be reopening in October.
A NEW ERA OF GROWTH
Demand for the gardens has been high for years, and the wait list for a plot currently is at 550, according to Community Garden Coordinator Kate Eickstead.
The biggest wait list is for the Ala Wai Community Garden, which has about 140 on the list. “And the reason why is it is our highest density population, right? So people that are living right in Waikiki, they see it across the Ala Wai, so it’s very visible.”
Her advice for an aspiring gardener looking to get their hands in the dirt more quickly would be to sign up for the Dole Community Garden or the Wahiawa Community Garden due to the higher turnover rate.
The 11 Honolulu Community Gardens are concentrated in southern Oahu, as seen on this map of all locations. A new community garden is being planned for the west side.
Currently there are no community gardens on the west side — but there will be great news for residents there very soon, Kate said.
A new community garden is being planned for Ewa, and the possible locations will be made public soon. The site selection process is underway, and the DPR park that is eventually chosen will have met criteria including bathrooms, water accessibility, underserved populations, proximity to bus stops, space availability, and more.
To set the public’s expectations appropriately, she cautions that the new community garden will not sprout up overnight. “It might be several years just to get funding, to do the whole community engagement process, and to do the design and build, … but we do know it's a need of the community. Everybody's like, we want more, we want more. We're like, we're working on it!”