Looking great Jim!

Trailgaiter-

Want your bananas to really fly? Get a big bag of Milorganite (less than $10) and a bottle of concentrated fish fertilizer (thick and stinky). You can not over-use these products since they are organic and non-chemical. Feed the heck out of the bananas. 3x recommended dose of the fish at least 2x per week (diluted in water). Pile the Milorganite around the stalk and root zone of the bananas and water daily when the weather is warm. Re-apply Milorganite about once a week. If your weather is at least 80s in the day and 60s at night, you should be seeing 3 to 5 new leaves opening on each banana plant per week. Also don't use city tap water, use collected rain water or dechlorinated water. In my experience, bananas and palms hate tap water (chlorine). Fill 5-gallon buckets or something similar and let them sit out (preferably in a sunny location) for at least 48 hours before using. That kills the chlorine ("poor man's distilled water") I have a bunch of buckets I do this with and keep a rotation going so I always have enough water for all my plants. Good luck!

Thats a great plan-

I collect 35 gallon containers of rain water off the roof.

So far I have only had to pull out the hose once.

We have well water. I can't stand city water myself...with all the additives in it.

Do you order the milorganite and fish fertilizer? Where from? I looked on the milorganite's website, and see they list ONE distributor in WI (where it originates), and it's quite a distance away....here I thought I could go to a store in Madison and pick some up!

Trailgater Angie, welcome aboard PN!
Could your bananas be getting a slower start than you want because of that "round thing" (suffocating the grass) preventing the soil from heating up?
Looking forward to seeing more of your yard and plants.

Hey Jim,
I'd be happy if that blue parryi "invaded" my property from next door.
Your neighbor should be so lucky... 😆

I simply cannot believe how fabulous your garden has become (especially remembering the winters)!
You likely had that "mature plant" picture in your mind all along.
And then, presto, in a couple of years, it's achieved.
Well done.

mn, I've got garbage buckets of water sitting everywhere too, dissipating chlorine.
The bonus is that when a bunch of mosquito larvae start wriggling around in there, I bucket them out to feed the goldfish in the pond.
They almost jump out of the pond in anticipation of their treats. 😆

Barb

Thanks for the idea, I only recently put those there just to kill the grass around them. I want to mulch around the basjoos (good idea?) to keep the grass from growing around them too close. I thought killing the grass that way would be easiest.

The plan was/is for me to take care of that mulching today or this weekend. I have a houseful of out of state company coming tonight, for the weekend, so we'll see when I can get that done!

But mulching around them would be a good idea, right? Jim, I'm so sorry to have hijacked your post....

Yup, mulch is a good idea to conserve water.

But it can prevent soil temp increases in spring when you want to get growth spurts, so you can pull it away from the root zone with your hands, and then push it back as the heat hits.
You do that too in Spring, I think, Jim?

That round thing is a brilliant idea!
Wonder if they're available in 1,000 sq ft circles... 😆 😆

Barb

Great! That makes sense! It's been pretty warm (near 90) and very dry here lately...I've been watering my basjoos every day, and they're soaking it right up. I've actually went out and checked the ground underneath, and it's hot. They're rubber, and dark colored, so imagine they absorb the heat. But they will be removed very soon. Maybe I can get out and do that in the next couple of hours, before my company comes....and get some mulch down. When it's hot and real dry like it has been, is watering once a day enough? I don't want root rot or anything, so I'm afraid of watering TOO much...

I'd LOVE a yard like Jim's someday...I'm just blown away by it...but I can't imagine, Jim, what your basement looks like in the wintertime! LOL

BTW Jim, I have a question about a couple of your photos...I believe I saw Canna Tropicanna in one of your photos, am I right? Do you have a good source for those with little threat of virus? I have some generic green canna now, and Canna Australia, but I want MORE!

Also, do you have ice plant? Think that's what it was in your pic....the purple flowers. Does is spread well for you? I have some of that, too, but it doesn't seem to be spreading well. Although I do have the area mulched...because I have a lot of weed growth in that area otherwise....if they are ice plants, they winter pretty well for ya, eh? I believe we are a half a zone difference...

Barb

That is a great idea about the gold fish,I have
been trying to thing of a way to kill them(skeeters) in the barrels.

The Fish emulsion I buy by the gallon at a local nursery.

The Milorganite is sold at Walmart and if I am not mistaken,
produced in Madison,or at least somewhere up north there 🙂

Yea Barb

I pull back the mulch in spring to let the soil warm back up.
It may get pushed back if we start tickling 100f like they are
predicting for late next week on.
Also,3 of the Agave have produced pups in the last few years-
including the blue one,to bad we can't sneak one through to ya!

Trailgaiter

I bought the Tropicana at a Farmers market last year-seems healthy-
to bad my Stuttgart Canna all dried out this past winter,they were
supposed to round out the Canna"bed".

The house is a 100+ year old **** hole anyway,so the basement is
the perfect cold/cool place for Bananan,etc storage! 😉

Walmart, eh? I'll look into that! So rarely do I go to Walmart (there's a Target so much closer)...but there are some things I make a list up to save for a walmart trip here and there. May have to take one Sunday or Monday after company leaves!

I did read Milorganite was made in Milwaukee. That's where the "Mil" comes from.

I missed the goldfish comment...but I'm a farmgirl...and lots of farmers have goldfish in their stock tanks to eat the bugs, and clear up the algae in the tank. Works like a charm! I have automatic waterers for my horses...so I don't have goldfish...just one lonely betta fish in my kitchen! 🙂

You've got horses?

Erik oughta chime in here any second now....a great horse nut.

Barb

Walmart, eh? I'll look into that! So rarely do I go to Walmart (there's a Target so much closer)...but there are some things I make a list up to save for a walmart trip here and there. May have to take one Sunday or Monday after company leaves!

I did read Milorganite was made in Milwaukee. That's where the "Mil" comes from.
🙂

Ahhhhh,that makes sense.....
still........nothing like having your own **** sold back to you! :fart:

Yep, we have horses and donkeys....some chickens...used to have goats too...miss them

Is that seriously what that is? I read about it...and saw organic sludge, but is it seriously...um...well, human...manure?

I don't know if any y'all get Mother Earth News, but I read in there recently how some people compost their own excrement...for lack of a better word....for use on their gardens.

Horse and chicken manure, composted with their bedding, has been our mulch/fertilizer staple. Good stuff, but lots of weed seeds in the horse manure (vs. steer manure).
Ah, goats. Used to have up to 14 here. No more. This isn't a goat forum, but PM me and I can share our email or facebook to share stories about goats eating needle palms etc. 👿
--Erik

Thanks!

We have no more composted manure....I saved some from our pile before hubby spread it on the crop fields, but I'm out now....which is why i'm looking at buying fertilizer now.....plenty of fresh, but nothing composted!

We kept our goats penned up in a wire mesh-fenced paddock reinforced with electric wire top, middle and bottom....I'm sure if given the chance, they'd have eaten everything I DIDN'T want them to! But we were lucky never to have any escapees!

If you do some searches on this forum you can find some goat photos from terdalfarm from 2010.

We don't have a manure spreader, so we end up making piles and using the tractor to mix it and dump heaps near the garden beds. I then move it about with a wheel barrow. Our pasture is missing the fertilizer, but mostly it is missing water. Super dry here in OK this year. 😥