{"id":219698,"date":"2025-08-06T11:52:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T21:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=219698"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:53:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T21:53:27","slug":"west-hawaii-master-gardener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/06\/west-hawaii-master-gardener\/","title":{"rendered":"West Hawai\u02bbi keiki learn gardening from UH<\/abbr> experts"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
\"kids
Keiki with the Ocean View Boys and Girls Club got hands-on experience potting their own plants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keiki on Hawaiʻi<\/span> Island are discovering the joy of growing their own plants with the help of the UH<\/abbr> Master Gardeners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Master gardeners are volunteers trained by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience<\/a> to share gardening knowledge with their communities. They recently distributed more than 200 plant seedlings to 10 schools and youth programs from Waimea to Naʻalehu<\/span>, reaching more than 1,300 students.<\/p>\n

Organized by Cooperative Extension Agent Marielle Hampton and West Hawaiʻi<\/span> Master Gardener President Michael Paris, the ongoing initiative nurtures young gardeners by supplying plants, site visits and providing expert growing advice.<\/p>\n

Young sprouts, big lessons<\/h2>\n

Using seedlings instead of seeds saved time and gave students immediate hands-on practice. “Students were able to plant their own seedlings, water them daily, and see how much they had grown in six weeks,” said Elijah Navarro of the Hawaiʻi<\/span> County Department of Parks and Recreation in Naʻalehu<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The West Hawaiʻi<\/span> Master Gardeners conducted regular check-ins, helped tailor plant selections to each garden\u2019s conditions, and responded to questions and concerns from educators.<\/p>\n

“They brought in a variety of plants and vegetables to see what would grow at this elevation,” said Sandy Mayberry, the garden teacher at Kealakehe Elementary School.<\/p>\n

The West Hawaiʻi<\/span> Master Gardeners will continue the project, with plans to expand to additional sites. For gardening questions, they can be reached at (808) 322-4893 or konamg@hawaii.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The initiative nurtures young gardeners by supplying plants, site visits and providing expert growing advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[212,9],"class_list":["post-219698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219698"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219809,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219698\/revisions\/219809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}