The Magic Sink (Hale-alula!)

It's been a while since I had a chance to blog, due to the fact that our camera-to-computer cord is broken. But thanks to a lovely new card reader, I'm back in the game! And boy: a lot has happened out in the garden. Seeing as how the holiday season is upon us, it seemed appropriate to write an optimistic story about a magical plant-reviving sink.

As you may recall, our native Hawaiian alula was completely on the fritz. Since the last post, it lost every single one of its leaves, and the flowers shriveled and died without producing any seeds, despite my best effort to pollinate. The trunk semi-caved in upon itself and the fate of this plant seemed sealed. However, I refused to give up on it. Since it was too depressing to look at it every day, we moved it out back...to the sinks.

There are two cement sinks in the backyard; I don't know where they came from or why they're there. But they seemed like a good (perhaps final) resting place for the alula and the cacti that Michelle left behind. We threw some soil in there with tons of rocks so that these desert plans would get good drainage. Many weeks passed with no progress, but slowly things started to change.












The cacti perked up, and regained their color. Two of them even now have flowers. This fellow was literally teetering back and forth in its pot and I was absolutely convinced of its passage to the next world. Now it has new growth (see the bumpy little babies) all over it. And the real Christmas miracle: the alula is even coming back to life. The leaves are growing greener and longer every day. Cactus on a baseball bat, I've missed you.

Thanks Santa.