In 1970, when Barbara DeFranco first walked her 9-acre property in Honaunau, it was covered with brush, lantana and Christmas berry that were so thick she had to cut a path with a machete.

A midwife at the time, she had moved to the island of Hawaii from Sonoma, Calif., to help start childbirth education classes and create licensing procedures for midwifery. “Through friends, the property and I found each other,” she said. “It had a small coffee shack on it but no electricity or county water. It was very primitive.”

But DeFranco knew there was something special about the place and that it had an important purpose to fulfill. The following year, she purchased the leasehold property and started transforming it. She bulldozed it twice to break up rocks and level the terrain. She hauled in soil, compost, vitamins and nutrients.

Then she started planting.

Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary opened in 1990 with avocado, lychee, mango, kukui, starfruit, citrus and macadamia nut trees. Today it’s a 7-acre botanical garden with meditation nooks; tranquil picnic spots; hundreds of species of plants, trees and flowers; and more than 20 shrines and statues that DeFranco regards as man’s expressions of love and peace.

Meaning “protective covering,” Paleaku honors many traditions and religions, including Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism and Judaism. “People express their connection with heaven and Earth in different ways, and wisdom can be found in all of them,” DeFranco said. “My hope is to support the thread of love that weaves its way through all belief systems, whether they be scientific, artistic or spiritual.”

There was no “master plan” for Paleaku; sections of the gardens were brought to fruition one at a time and wound up flowing nicely into each other. DeFranco describes it as natural feng shui.

“People come with different thoughts, different visions,” she said. “Sometimes they ask, ‘Why don’t you have such-and-such?’ I’ll say, ‘That’s great, let’s look for it.’ And if I can find it and get it funded, I know there will be a perfect place for it here.”

Highlights of a visit include the Galaxy Garden, designed by DeFranco and Jon Lomberg, a renowned artist inspired by astronomy who lives across the street from Paleaku. Lomberg worked closely with Carl Sagan; over the course of 24 years, he illustrated most of the renowned astronomer’s books and magazine articles.

Lomberg also created the opening sequence for the 1997 science-fiction movie “Contact,” which starred Jodie Foster and was based on Sagan’s 1985 novel of the same name. The dramatic three-minute segment takes viewers from Earth through our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy and beyond.

“The Galaxy Garden is an accurate scale model of the Milky Way,” DeFranco said. “It’s 100 feet wide, and the Milky Way is 100,000 light-years wide, so each foot in the garden represents 1,000 light-years. The garden helps people understand how enormous the Milky Way is; our sun and its orbiting planets are just tiny specks in it. And just imagine — the universe is made up of billions of galaxies! That’s mind-boggling!”

With the guidance of astronomers and current astrophysical data, Lomberg and DeFranco positioned greenery where astronomical objects actually are in outer space. For instance, hibiscus shrubs symbolize large nebulae; vinca, small nebulae; red bromeliads, globular clusters; gold dust crotons, stars; and red and black crotons, interstellar dust and gas.

Also of note at Paleaku is the Kalachakra Stupa, a monument of Tibetan Buddhism that represents Buddha sitting in a meditative pose. It is also regarded as a mandala or sacred arrangement of enlightened qualities: The base signifies earth and inner peace; the dome, water and indestructibility; the spire, fire and compassion; the piece above the spire, wind and all-accomplishing action; and the jewel at the very top, space and all-pervading awareness.

Another intriguing element is the Medicine Wheel, built with multicolored volcanic cinder, sea-sculpted coral sand and a sandalwood pole at the center symbolizing the connection of heaven and Earth. A traditional Native American healing tool, it features four quadrants that denote the four directions and the four seasons.

Followers of Baha’i will recognize the significance of the Nine-Pointed Star, which, installed in 2015, is Paleaku’s newest addition. Etched on a 12-by-12-foot concrete pad surrounded by fragrant shrubs, it recalls the essential tenets of the faith: courtesy, truthfulness, justice, generosity, forgiveness, unity, knowledge, love and steadfastness.

Hawaii is represented by a stone ahu (altar) on a 3,300-year-old lava flow. Nearby are a stone honu (turtle), io (Hawaiian hawk) and pueo (Hawaiian owl) — three of the earthly forms that aumakua (family or personal gods) take. From an elevated path nearby, visitors can see petroglyphs dating back some 800 years at the entrance to what is likely an ancient cave dwelling.

“Paleaku is home to a variety of expressions that invite everyone to spend time relaxing amid the natural beauty of plants and expansive views of the ocean, mountains and sky,” DeFranco said. “It exemplifies unity through diversity and brings to the world the much-needed ingredient of peace.”

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.