Tales from Oahu’s Community Gardens

Plants—and community—grow in O?ahu’s community gardens.

By Kevin Allen
Hawaii Magazine
Mar 29, 2021

Excerpt:

Letty Geschwind, a soft-spoken but spirited senior, had been gardening long before the Manoa Community Garden came to be in 1975. In fact, she was asked to be one of the community garden’s first occupants after making a name for herself at the University of Hawai?i at M?noa East-West Center community garden, which predates the state-run public community garden program. What brought Geschwind to the community gardens, initially, was the constant exchange of information between gardeners. “It’s fun to work together with other people who have different experiences that I can get from them,” says Geschwind, who, at 82, visits her well-manicured plot often, “and I like to give mine to them as well.”

But everyone can use a little assistance sometimes, and these days, Geschwind has some helping hands: Her son, Leon, and his two daughters—ages 6 and 2—also spend time with her in the garden. “My mom set aside an area in her garden where my kids can decide what they want to plant,” says Leon, “and the gardening techniques they see here in the garden, they’ve been translating and trying to figure out how they can grow things in our condo too.”

Read the complete article here.