10 Years in the Making

BEFORE

Good things come to those who wait. Just ask a Kahala homeowner who endured an entire decade of lackluster landscaping. In the end, it took a sympathetic ear, some subtle enhancements and a backyard makeover to transform her outdoor living space into a one-of-a-kind oasis for her family and friends to enjoy.

The story begins 10 years ago, when the homeowner, along with her husband, decided to tear down the property’s original home and start building a new one from scratch. While both were involved with the new building plans, the husband pointed to the yard and told his wife, “That’s your baby.”

The lady of the house had ideas about what she wanted, but the original architect wasn’t as receptive to her thoughts as she would have liked. When the family returned from a weeklong trip, they found that the contractor had installed many unapproved substitutions to the project. The result? An outdoor arrangement that wasn’t quite in line with her original vision.

This view of the backyard now features an idyllic garden area and grass pathways leading to the pool.

It took the homeowner several years to bounce back from her disappointment and, as she says, “get back to the landscaping.”
Enter Kevin Mulkern.

“When we came in, we listened to what she didn’t like about the original project,” says Mulkern, owner of Mulkern Landscaping and a licensed landscape contractor in Hawaii for more than 30 years. “The first thing she said was, ‘Nobody listened to me.’ The second thing she said was, ‘Everything had bugs.’”

As it turned out, most of the plants in the yard, while quite attractive, required regular spraying. The hibiscus ledge fronting the property, for example, was susceptible to gall mites, which cause ugly, abnormal growths of plant material. Other plants were populated by mealybugs and whiteflies.

“The plants didn’t look good because nobody was spraying them regularly,” says Mulkern. “It seemed like a high-maintenance situation for her, and it was out of control. There’s nothing worse than having clouds of bugs by your front door.”

The good news, the landscaper recalls, was that the homeowner had some good things to work with. The hedge of Tahitian gardenias that lines the left side of the property, for instance, was worth saving. The leaves were blackened with sooty mold, but some expert pruning and spraying brought new life to the plants. Even the mold-covered wall behind the hedge looked as good as new after a thorough power wash.

To add visual interest and color, Mulkern adorned a bare area of a tree trunk with the homeowner’s cattleya orchids and a neoreligia “fireball” bromeliad.

The hibiscus hedge in the front was replaced with groupings of snow bush plants that don’t require as much pruning. While the original hedge was parallel to the front wall, Mulkern used the snow bush to break up the hard lines and form a more eye-pleasing contrast. In addition, several areca palms were pulled from the backyard to the front to bring unity to the overall landscape.

A shady monkeypod tree remains the centerpiece of the home’s courtyardlike entry area. Although Mulkern wasn’t a fan of the outdoor lights clinging to the tree, he understood their functionality from a security standpoint. He replaced the unsightly gray pipes and electrical box with a more inconspicuous model, then freed up the wiring that had been fastened too snugly to the tree.

The euphorbia plants that hugged one side of the yard were thinned out slightly. Because they didn’t have a strong root structure, new supports were added to hold them up. “These are the only plants [the husband] is interested in. So to keep my job, I have to make sure they don’t fall over and die,” says Mulkern, laughing. “I want to make sure they’re healthy all the time!”

Oddball features in the original landscape were corrected, including the half-gravel, half-grass walkway that leads to the backyard. Explains Mulkern, “It looked a little goofy—it didn’t make sense to have a border right in the middle [of the path]—so we moved the border out so that it’s all gravel.”

A large monkeypod tree defines the home’s entry area.

While the front and side yards required mostly small cosmetic changes, the backyard was where Mulkern really rolled up his sleeves and went to work.

“When I saw the backyard for the first time, about half of the yard was a cement pool deck,” says Mulkern. “I don’t like cement. When the homeowner said, ‘You know, I never liked the deck,’ I thought to myself, ‘Thank you!’”

Equipment was brought in to break up the pool deck. In its place, Mulkern plugged in patches of el toro zoysia grass, even sodding a couple of areas to create natural walkways to the pool. He replaced the cement deck behind the pool with a cool garden of rocks, bromeliads, gingers and bronze heliconias. According to the landscaper, it was like turning the yard from “a parking lot into a nice, tropical landscape.”

The end result: an attractive, clean and relatively low-maintenance oasis that should provide the homeowners years of enjoyment. Even better, Mulkern and his staff make regular visits to ensure the landscape stays in optimal shape.

Neoreligia shocking pink bromeliads dress up the garden behind the swimming pool.

“Generally, when we do a new installation, we provide what we call ‘establishment maintenance,’” Mulkern says. “While maintenance isn’t glamorous, a lot of times it really is the determining factor in whether or not a landscape is going to be successful. Landscaping is not just ‘stick the plants in, take the money and run.’ It’s like having a baby; you have to take care of it.”

The homeowner was excited about the results and even happier that she was part of the process. “We did pretty much everything she asked us to do,” says Mulkern. “She went from having people she felt compelled to pay, to working with people who listened to her.” 

agapanthus	bronze leaf heliconia
Mrs. Martin Randig tropical water lily	rice bog plant