Sustainable South Maui gardening to be discussed

KIHEI - Gardening and composting experts and practicing gardeners will participate in a panel discussion on South Maui gardening Thursday.

South Maui Sustainability (SMS) will present the moderated question-and-answer session from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Kihei Charter School. Light refreshments will be served.

Among the panelists will be Lindsey Manuel and Kainoa Horcajo, who are involved in an SMS hui vegetable-garden site in Maui Meadows, offering their expertise on raised beds, soil selection, water conservation and pest control.

Manuel, who has a University of Hawaii degree in plant and environmental protection sciences, will focus Thursday on tropical agriculture and fruit sciences. He previously worked with Maui Land & Pineapple, where he transformed an abandoned 2-acre field into a community garden with mulch and composting pits and a composting toilet.

Horcajo has a University of San Diego degree in international relations. His sustainability efforts on Maui blend Native Hawaiian values and traditions with modern and ancient philosophies from the East and West.

Other panelists will include:

= Ann Emmsley, associate professor and program coordinator of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Program at Maui Community College.

= Gene "Blaze" Weaver, who has a 100-pot garden in Maui Meadows and a 2-acre, 100-tree orchard and vegetable garden in Huelo. He also has grown turmeric, ginger, pineapple, sweet potato and more on small organic farms on the Big Island and participated in Hawaii community gardens for the last 30 years.

= Tim Gunter, owner of Maui Earth Compost, a consultant on growing food since 1979 and the originator of Earth Week in Minnesota in 1970. In 2000, Island Business Magazine named him "innovator of the year" for being the first to compost drywall.

= Marion Scott, a certified permaculture designer and teacher, grows 42 species of edible vegetables, fruits and herbs, including medicinals, at her 22-year-old Kihei garden.

SMS is a grass-roots group that promotes sustainability awareness through education, food growing, energy production, conservation and sharing of resources.

For more information, contact group co-founder Maury King at 874-5955 or maury@

SouthMauiSustainability.org, or see the Web site at www.SouthMauiSustainability.org.