School Garden Island Resources

Soil Amendments, Plants, Tools, and Supplies

East Hawai‘i 

Garden Exchange – 300 Keawe Street, Hilo 808-961-2875
Organic potting soil and soil amendments, organic fungicides, insecticides, IMO4, bio char, tools, plants, plant pots, personal service.

Farm Supply Cooperative – 366 East Kawili Street, Hilo 808-969-7474
Open Mon.–Fri., 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Membership fee is $30/1 yr., $50/2 yrs. Guaranteed lowest prices on island. All purchases are tax free. Organic soil amendments including worm castings and compost, organic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, aquaponics supplies including fish food, chicken feed, pots, tools, and plants. Look for sales coupons in the sports section of the Hawaii Tribune Herald.

Hawai‘i Natural Farms, LLC – Joseph Kim, Hilo 808-938-7276 IMO #4
(Indigenous Micro Organisms) plus many more Natural Farming products.

KTA Puainako – 50 E. Puinako St., Hilo 808- 959-9111
This store sells Immolizer (IMO4) soil conditioner in 5 and 10 lb bags in the plants section.

Nursery Things, Inc. – 626 Kealakai St, Hilo 808- 959-9135
They carry a large selection of pots, soil mixes, weed barrier cloth and more at wholesale prices.

Paradise Plants Home & Garden Center – 40 Wiwoole St, Hilo 808-935-4043 
Web site: http://paradiseplantshilo.com.
They carry a great assortment of garden supplies and plants.

West Hawai‘i 

Ace Hardware – Two locations: 82-6066 Mamalahoa Hwy., Captain Cook, 808-323-2655;
74-5500 Kaiwi St., Kailua-Kona, 808-329-2981.
They sell plants, garden supplies, and a good selection of organic potting mixes.

Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden 808-323-3318
E-mail: agg@bishopmuseum.org
The Garden nursery is open Mon.–Fri., 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. They have an extensive line of native ground covers, shrubs, and trees for the home gardener or commercial landscaper. You’ll find many hard-to-get natives, like endangered species and wetland sedges; also, many varieties of Hawaiian taro and other traditional crops for the home garden. They also sell a wide selection of Hawaiian Agricultural and Native Plant Books for sale. The Garden is available for field trips for your classes.

Farm & Garden – Locations in Captain Cook, 808-323-3017 and Kailua Kona, 808-329-4775
They carry a wide selection of organic inputs, seed, potting mixes, nursery supplies, and tools.

Kainaliu Gardens – 79-7372 Mamalahoa Hwy., Kealakekua, 808-322-3006
Offers a wide selection of fruit trees as well as nursery and garden supplies.

Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai‘i Authority (NELHA) – 73-4460 Queen Ka‘ahumanu Hwy., Kailua-Kona
Some of these businesses sell by-products suitable for garden use. Contact Cyanotech for agricultural grade algae powder for garden use.

Sunrise Nursery – 73-4939 Kamanu St, Kailua Kona, 808-329-7593
Web site: www.sunrisenurserykona.com
Fruit trees, vegetable, and herb plants. Also sells used plant pots; offers a wide selection of plant material varieties for home gardens and landscaping needs.

Pearl’s Garden Center – 82-6066 Mamalahoa Hwy., Captain Cook, 808-323-3009
Pearl’s carries a great selection of organic and conventional inputs for Home Gardens and Small Farms in West Hawai‘i.

Soil Plus –74-591 Honokohau Street, 808-326-9645
Web site: www.soilpluskona.com
Custom soil blends, mac nut husk compost, red black and mixed cinder, sand and gravel, bags of cement. Available by: pick-up or delivery.

West Hawai‘i Concrete – Locations in Waimea/Waikoloa and Kailua-Kona, 808-329-3561
Call for current prices. You can take a truck or car and buckets and pick up items yourself, or order a truck load. The Waimea/Waikoloa site is located just north of the Saddle Road turn-off on the upper highway, and the Kona yard is located just north of the Kealakehe Parkway off the Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway.

1. Basalt Rock Dust (sold as fine mortar sand) contains all the micro-minerals from the Earth needed to help and replace minerals in soil—especially good in high rainfall areas. It’s very heavy so take a shovel and 5 gallon buckets and fill them 1/2 way. Sprinkle through bed before preparing. Twelve 5 gallon buckets costs approximately $12–$15 (VERY inexpensive).

2. Also available are various grades of cinder soil, plain cinder, gravel, coral sand, and beach sand. Wood Chips – if you see a tree trimming service on the side of the road stop to let them know about your school garden and if they would be willing to add you to their list of places to deliver wood chips for free.

Publications/Web sites 

Reviving Local Food Systems in Hawai‘i
A case study by the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project

Hawai‘i Homegrown Network
Web site: www.hawaiihomegrown.net This is a comprehensive listing of agriculture events, workshops, seed exchanges and classes on Hawai‘i Island. Sign up to receive the newsletter online.

Natural Farming Hawai‘i 
Web site: http://naturalfarminghawaii.net. This site has an amazing wealth of information and video presentations on Korean Natural Farming in Hawai‘i. There’s also an active group of Korean Natural Farming enthusiasts who meet monthly in Hilo.

Hawaii Fruit.net Big Island fruit posters 
Web site: http://www.hawaiifruit.net/indexposter.html 
Beautiful, high quality tropical fruit collection posters, calendars, post cards and fruit guides. The posters are great for classrooms as well as home décor.

Ka‘ahahui ‘O Ka Nāhelehele: A Non-Profit for Hawai‘i Dryland Forests
Web site: http://www.drylandforest.org/videos-dryland-symposium-presentations
Videos of presentations at the 2013 Nāhelehele Dryland Symposium held in Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi.

Enhancing Soil Function and Plant Health with Locally Available Resources by Ted Radovich, Archana Pant, Amjad Ahmad, Craig Elevitch, and Nguyen Hue
Web site: http://agroforestry.org/images/pdfs/Locally_Available_Resources_Radovich.pdf
A comprehensive look at locally available resources in Hawaii for enhancing soils.