Malamalama Waldorf School is set on 20 acres of beautiful ‘āina.The gardens at our school provide a place for our school community to connect with the earth. Over the 30 years that Malamalama has been providing quality Waldorf education for East Hawai‘i the gardens have experienced many manifestations. Currently we have three main gardening areas: the Kinderhale, our early childhood center; the Grades Garden, serving the children in grades 1-8; and our newly established Hawaiian Heritage Memorial Garden.

Within the Kinderhale, gardens offer a magical, edible landscape for the children to experience the abundance and the processes of life. The garden is a place to slow down, to observe, to take in, and to ask “What must be done?”  The vision for the Kinderhale Garden is: From garden to table, where the food we grow is served in the school lunch program (and used to feed our bunny). Our Grades Garden is a refuge for the souls of our children, where what has been learned through the mind can be lived through the body.  

The vision for this garden is a living classroom that can support the lessons of the class teachers, while at the same time deepening the children’s relationship to working with the earth and growing food. The garden is a place for the children to activate their bodies by doing good and practical work, and also where concepts are enlivened by experience–where kalo becomes poi, where seed becomes a meal shared with friends. The gardens are a place where one can see how one’s own effort and focus can create specific outcomes.

Our Hawaiian Heritage Memorial Garden is dedicated to David Watumull, who was an original donor to our school. The vision for our Memorial Garden is to honor the unique place that is Hawai‘i Nei. Native plants, plants with tradition and cultural value, and any plant that (true to the pioneering spirit of sustainability) found these islands as home, will be used to express this vision.

We are a small school moving forward. We are open to ideas on how to further expand our visions of what our gardens are and can be. Please contact our school if you would like to share in our journey in any way. Mahalo and aloha!

For more information, please contact Develyn Armet at dearmet@gmail.com.