Classic Kahala

The Forever Fern: The irregular but graceful lauae fern is an iconic plant in the Hawaiian landscape.

Today, these elegant old homes are an endangered species, succumbing to larger, multistory and multifunctional structures that are elegant enclaves in themselves. So a year ago, when new owners moved into an old Kahala home (built in 1933), the first thing the neighbors asked was: “Are you going to tear down the house and rebuild?”

“I told them: Oh, no. It is an old lady, but it’s a wonderful house,” says the homeowner, who was born in Waipahu and has lived in various locations throughout the Islands, including a short stint in an old Kahala home several blocks away. “It’s one story and comfortable, just perfect for my husband and me.”

However, when the homeowner first got a glimpse of the old lady, it wasn’t love at first sight. The three-bedroom and two-bath gal was surrounded by a tangled jungle, which had grown unchecked over the decades.

The property was dark and dreary, with 30-foot-tall trees blocking out most of the sunlight and dumping their debris everywhere. In addition, one of the home’s previous owners had planted a grove of areca palms along the perimeter of the property. The bushy plants provided plenty of privacy but they had been planted too closely, maybe a foot apart, so they were now growing into each other and encroaching onto the rest of the yard.

In other words, it was a mess.

“Some yards look like they have a theme, but when you get up close you realize that most of the trees were planted by birds or the seeds were blown in by the wind,” says landscaper Kevin Mulkern, who was hired to renovate the yard. “This was one of those yards. They [trees] start off only a couple of inches high and then the next thing you know, they’re 30-feet tall. It happens more than you realize.”

Mulkern’s first priority was to clear out this forest of “volunteer” trees and shrubs. He cut down a random collection of pink Tacoma, African tulip, Christmasberry, ficus and brassaia trees. He also removed shrubs such as Tahitian gardenia, bougainvillea and hibiscus, many of which hadn’t been pruned in several years. In addition, he reluctantly removed a decades-old avocado tree, which produced far too much debris for the homeowner, who does much of the yard work herself.

“Growing up, my job was to rake leaves, so I told Kevin that I didn’t want to do that again,” says the homeowner. “I wanted a rake-less yard, and I wanted one with a lot of local plants.”

Local Lifestyle: With a generous lawn and plants located very close to the home, this Kahala yard typifies kamaaina landscapes of a generation ago. Back then, homeowners spent much more time primping and pruning their shrubs and trees.

Since the property had a large inventory of palms, which shed their fronds very infrequently, Mulkern was able to easily fulfill the request. Well, maybe it wasn’t too easy: The landscaper thinned out the lot’s areca palm perimeter, moving nearly two dozen plants to other areas of the yard. In addition, he rehabilitated the other palms on the property, including manila, raphis, fan, MacArthur and dwarf date. He also added a few more exotic varieties of palms (red sealing wax, triangle and spindle, among others) for visual interest. All together, the landscape now contains nine different varieties of palms and nearly 50 individual specimens.

In addition, Mulkern rehabbed the home’s lauae ferns and planted a few more varieties, including the homeowner’s Boston fern, which is thriving in a quiet, shady corner.

At the homeowner’s request, the landscaper also installed a small stand of white ginger in the courtyard area between the garage and the house, a bouquet of orchids near the entryway and a couple of spider lily plants along one side of the house. He also revived an apple banana tree, which today looks near to bearing fruit, and sprinkled the landscape with red ti plants to give the garden a little visual pop.

Flame On: Brightly colored hybrid ti plants provide fiery spot color in the verdant but largely green landscape.

“We probably rearranged more than two-thirds of the plants on the property, which wasn’t as easy as it seemed at first,” says Mulkern. “Sometimes you dig up a plant, dig another hole and it seems like you’ve only moved it a few inches. It was worth it, though.”

Finally, Mulkern rehabilitated the property’s Z-3 zoysia lawn, which had been starved of sunlight, fertilizer and tender loving care. In the new, open, light-filled area, the grass and all the rest of the plants thrive. The homeowner couldn’t be more pleased.

“We wanted something open and easy, and that’s exactly what Kevin gave us,” says the homeowner. “I like yard work, I like going around and fussing, planting, digging and moving things about. Today, I spend about eight or 10 hours a week in the yard. I love it.”

Now that the yard is finished, will the homeowners begin major renovations of the house?

Not a chance.

“That’s how you know we are local: We fixed up the yard before the house,” says the homeowner. “We have remodeled the kitchen, and we still need to make a few minor repairs, but other than that, the house will remain as is. They made homes well in the old days, and this house is just fine.”