Nutgrass: garden weed, medicinal herb

April 4, 2010

In defense of this pesky plant which likes to spread itself around and choke out and tangle up the roots of our garden vegetables, I must say that I've learned something about its purpose. Because of its resilience when other foodcrops whithered away I am told that the Hawaiians ate it in order to avoid starving. It has a little edible nut at the end of the root that is linked by a fine hair of a root to another nut and another and another, which is exactly why its a garden pest.When you try to pull it out the fine hairlike root breaks, leaving the other nut, more deeply rooted into the soil, to remain and start a whole new colony of grasses. In my curiosity I actually cleaned one up and tried it. If you recall the smell of the chinese herbal stores down in Chinatown, it tastes just like that! In fact, it is a Chinese medicinal herb, called xiang fu, and is used to regulate qi. It affects the liver and triple healer channels, regulates menses, soothes the liver, and alliviates pain. It is a tuber that is native to Africa and it has really made its way around the globe! It is an indian ayurvedic medicine used to treat the digestive system, dysmenorrhea and fever, an Arab treatment (when roasted) used topically for bruises and wounds. "Modern" medicine claims its use for nausea, fever, inflammation, pain relief and muscle relaxation. Funny how they call it "modern" when this plant has been used in traditional native medicine for probably thousands of years or more for those same purposes.

I had the opportunity to take a closer look at this fascinating plant under the microscope recently. The image above is my homage to this pesky but useful rhizome, created from those images. The following is what the plant looks like in your garden:

This is what it looks like in your garden. You need to dig it out carefully, following the tiny root beneath the nut to the other little sneaky ones or else it will surely pop up again in a few days.

I am very happy to announce the news that I am a proud recipient of the Kosaki Award for my research proposal. I am very excited because this means that I now have the funds to look at more plants and insects using the new SEM- Scanning Electron Microscope at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. This microscope will enable me to take highly defined images "in the round" instead of the narrow focal length I get with the florescence and dissecting microscope. I can look at different things than I can with the others, enabling me to reveal a fascinating world that is unseen to the naked eye - especially by those of us who are not scientists. I look forward to posting some of these photos on my blog and making beautiful artworks with these images. The next step is for me to find an exhibition site to show the work I've done.

A few more things that I am very thankful for:

My BFA project is almost done and the opening is scheduled for April 25th at 2pm (the Awards Ceremony) located in the Art auditorium. The work will be in the Main Gallery of the Art Building. You are invited! The show runs from April 25 to May 14, 2010 Gallery hours are 10am to 4pm M-F Sunday 12-4pm.

I have been admitted to the MFA program at UH Manoa and will attend in the fall. Yay!

I am honored to be chosen to lead my graduating class as a student marshall at the commencement ceremony for Arts and Sciences. Wow!

I was chosen to receive awards for outstanding student in painting and for digital imaging and photography. I get to display work in the Commons Gallery for the Awards and Scholarship show which runs April 25th to May 7th, 2010.

I am so very, very, thankful. I couldn't do it without such positivity coming at me from the faculty at UH and from my family and friends at home. Thank you!

Now I gotta get to work!

March 7th- A Rainy Day in the Garden

Looking back...

My beautiful huli are kept company by the baby butter lettuce - just four weeks old, from seed!



Why do tomato plants have such hairy legs? The little hairs are individual cells which contain toxins (proteinase inhibitors) that guard against insects who might find the plant delicious looking. In fact, the entire plant is toxic except for the actual tomato, which explains why the tomatoes are the only things which get eaten by the critters. My next goal is to look even closer at these very interesting "hairs" with the microscope. Stay tuned for those photos!

This guy did more work than I did today.

From garden to table!

A delicious feast of fresh picked mixed salad greens tossed with mint, julienne beets, daikon and carrots and topped with tarrogon flowers. Beautiful and nutritious.

The inexperienced gardener blogspot

Hello Everyone!

This is my very first blogsite just as this is my very first community gardening experience! I am a new gardener anxious to learn as much as I can about growing plants for food, health and healing and then share that knowledge and experience with you! I am an artist and also a student at the University of Hawaii , working toward my BFA.

My goal in this project is to learn how to use art, science, and community gardening together in order to strengthen the relationship that people have with the natural environment.

On this site I will post photos and comment what I have learned through my research and learning process at the garden. I hope to get funding to use the microscopes at the university to take images of plants, seed, soil and insect from the garden in order to understand and learn more about the garden. I will create artworks during this project with the images I take with my camera and with the microscopes. I may also create paintings as I am a painter. There may be more projects I am inspired to undertake as I discover and learn. I am excited about what I have learned already in just 1 short month of weekly gardening.

Already I have learned how to propagate bananas, planted kalo (I planted my first huli last week), butter lettuce from seeds and peppers. Each Sunday I work in the garden all morning and together afterward our hard work we pick fresh vegetables and share a big lunch together.

I saved 6 huli from my compost bin when Dan, my botanist housemate told me that I could grow them if I would just put them in water long enough for them to take root. After just a week they had rooted but I wasn't ready to plant them as yet. It was 3 weeks before we had a bed for them and they had just about busted out of the glass jars - any longer and I would have had to sacrifice one to get them out. Evelyn instructed me to plant them deep in the soil, putting a little compost in the hole first. These are my babies in thier new bed last week. This week they have already grown new leaves and the baby butter lettuces are keeping them company in the same bed. Their light green leaves look beautiful with the dark red stalks of the Huli (they are color compliments -of course they look fabulous!)

February 14th - I planted my first kalo huli! So beautiful!

Insect controller and a big flirt!