COURTESY PHOTO
Turtle Bay community gardens project officials Luke Estes, left, Jerry Gibson and Chris Lee pose on the resort’s agricultural land.
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Turtle Bay Resort plans to add gardening to activities it offers on the North Shore.
Not for visitors, though.
The resort owner is offering 500-square-foot plots adjacent to its resort property as a community garden for employees, North Shore residents and neighborhood organizations including nonprofits and schools.
Turtle Bay said it has created 30 plots measuring 50 by 10 feet for rent at $10 a month plus an annual $50 maintenance fee.
Waterlines are being provided to each plot, and gardeners must provide their own tools and seeds or plants. A refundable security deposit also is required, the resort said.
Ten plots are reserved for community organizations to be selected by the resort and local agricultural stewardship company Pono Pacific. A lottery will be held for the other 20 plots, of which 10 are for residents and 10 are for Turtle Bay employees.
July 24 is the deadline to enter the lottery. Entering can be done at turtlebaycommunitygardens.org, where more information is available. The community garden is slated to open in August and will be managed by Pono Pacific.
The 15,000 square feet of community garden space is part of 468 acres of farmland the resort owns mauka of its oceanfront resort. The resort agreed to restrict uses on this largely fallow area for agriculture in perpetuity under a protective easement for which it received $6 million in 2016 from the Army, state and city.
A master plan for the area calls for leasing more large plots to commercial farmers, adding a safety-certified food processing facility, establishing a large farmers market, building farmworker housing and branding the operation Kuilima Farms at Turtle Bay.
