Well its been working!!  This is the greenest I've seen it here in years! Normally this time of year we have to trim everything back.  I'm seeing fruit on vines that I never have before.

Today was a very hot day and it seriously started raining when I started typing this Blog.

                Endemic to the Indian Subcontinent, the Neem Tree has many Amazing Uses.
                            In this Blog I'm mostly going to focus on Neem Cake Fertilizer.

 Neem Cake Fertilizer is a vegan fertilizer, pest repellent, that helps  protect crops against parasitic nematodes and is amazing soil conditioner. It also seems to keep cats out of my beds too. Neem has a strong Curry like smell.

In Hawaii we have every single insect in the world. Well.. Almost.  We do have loads and more arriving everyday in tourist suitcases,  imported plants and other shipments that weren't inspected properly. Plus with our two Seasons "Grow and Grow Faster", there is never a time when the bugs die off.  With that being said, gardening and farming can be way more difficult than you would think in Hawaii.  In fact most plants that grow amazing in the mainland with barely any care, we can't grow at all. Unless we use some form of pesticides. Plants such as Tomatoes, Zucchini and all Peppers are some of the hardest things to grow in Hawaii, thanks to The Oriental Fruit Fly (Bactrocera dorsalis). This fly also attacks all of our fruit by laying inside them. I hear the fly has made it to some parts of the mainland. So please arm yourself with Neem Oil, add warm organic soap water, mix and spray on your fruit trees and plants.

Neem is an Eco-friendly fertilizer and pesticides. Unlike commercial pesticides, you won't food poison  birds, toads and lizards. You want to keep and encourage pests natural enemies.  Neem protects crops from pests, is non-toxic to Us, birds, animals and earthworms :)

Plus no toxic residue in our food. 

If you are looking for an Amazing Organic Fertilizer and Pesticide, thats been around for thousands of years.   I highly Recommend Neem Cake Fertilizer and Neem Oil.

For more info on the History, and other uses of Neem Tree.

Food Grade Diatomaceous earth has got to be one of my favorite things ever! It's an organic destroyer of my Not Favorite things, Bugs! Powder Crushed Fossilized hard-shelled algae aka diatoms Rule!  

Living in the jungle in Hawaii sounds really romantic.  But you see, we have two seasons Grow and Grow faster.  Meaning lots of yard work and bugs all year round.
When I first moved to this land it had so many cockroaches, It sounded like it was raining at night.  I went outside to check out the rain, I looked up and saw the Milky Way, I looked down and the ground was moving with roaches! 
The next day I went to a farm and garden store and bought 200 lbs. of Diatomaceous earth. They were shocked too, 200 lbs.!?  Did I mention I don't like bugs, I also live down a crazy 4x4 wheel drive road an hour from anything.  Gotta stock up. Lol. I placed black tarps on the ground to kill weeds and hopefully make roach traps.  I found the roaches loved staying dry under the tarps. I got a five gallon bucket of D Earth and a sifter, lifted up the ends of the tarps and powdered thousands of roaches! After a month of doing this every morning, the amount of roaches decreased daily. One morning I got up lifted the tarp to toss more D Earth on roaches and nothing, not one roach!  Now I use a 50 lb. bag every month on about 3 acres Garden, Orchard and living areas.  When It's diatomaceous earth day on the sanctuary, we say make it look like Christmas.

Recently we planted a baby Jaboticaba tree in the orchard.  Normally I like putting trees in when they're a lot bigger. 

But we already had some holes pre dug.  A big deal living on a volcano.  The holes were made  with a Backhoe a while back and already had irrigation to the spot.  I also had some really amazing organic homemade goat, deer repellant I made, ready to spray the small tree.  Our goat DJ is an incredible escape artist, gotta spray the ones I love and she wants.  I'll make a blog on how to make the repellant soon. Stay focused….  

Ok, trees young but in the ground with repellant, and other yummy tree stuff.  

Thought everything was great and it was for a month.  Then the attack of the Chinese rose beetle, Adoretus sinicus Burmeister!  The cute baby tree got turned into a skeleton.  

I remembered hearing that those beetles come out at night.  We put rechargeable solar lights around the tree and look at all the new green leaves!!!  

If you are having Chinese rose beetle problems I recommend Rechargeable Solar Lights.  I used 3 around this tiny tree and it did wonders!