The latest additions to our kitchen garden, after visiting the plant sale, are a half dozen blueberry bushes which we’ve planted along our front walk. They’re flowering right now and I love watching the bumblebees visiting the flowers.
I was thinking that despite my plans to scale back, we still have a lot going on in our yard.
Bananas (haven’t yet borne fruit, but we’re trying)
Basil
Blackberries (wild, but yield a few handfuls each year)
Blueberries
Cherry Tomatoes
Chives
Fava Beans
Garlic
Green Onions (starting to flower)
Jalapeno Peppers
Lemon (one small tree)
Lettuce (the end of the winter crop)
Parsley
Pole Beans
Rosemary
Sage
Satsuma (one small tree)
Summer Squash
Thyme
Food
- ChewsWise by Samuel Fromartz
- Civil Eats
- Eat Local Challenge Blog
- Eat Well Guide
- Eating Alabama
- Ecocentric: A Blog About Food, Water, and Energy
- Fairhope Local Food Production Initiative
- Food Politics by Marion Nestle
- FoodRoutes
- Grist on Food
- Local Harvest
- Michael Pollan
- Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch
- National Center for Home Food Preservation
- Organic Consumer Association
- Pick Your Own (Mobile Area)
- Politics of the Plate by Barry Estabrook
- Slow Food Blog
- Slow Food USA
- Sustainable Table
- The Ethicurean
- U.S. Food Policy Blog
For Gardeners & Growers
The Environment
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2 Comments
While Mobile’s winters are usually mild it does freeze and banana trees do die back. We usually cut them back to the ground in the cold months, and while they always grew back (you can’t stop them) they never bore fruit. Many years ago my father wrapped our trees to protect them through the winter. He cut the leaves but left the main stalk and wrapped it with carpet scraps and newspaper, with plastic around that. The next year they had a head start and did produce bananas, though we didn’t let them grow to maturity for some reason. Wrap yours next year and see what happens.
Thanks, that’s a good idea. It seems cold protection of the stalks is the key, using whatever materials you have on hand for mulch. I’m happy to report that three of our four stalks actually survived the winter, so we might have a chance for next year! We used Bill Finch’s advice of making a giant mound of leaf mulch around the base of the plants. He writes that you need “a good banana trunk…that you didn’t prematurely whack down over the winter,” because “it takes about 14 months of growth for a single banana trunk to develop and ripen its fruit.” Additionally, “[mulch] heavily with leaves or pine straw and [fertilize] well.” He uses cottonseed meal and fireplace ashes. Be sure to “[leave] no more than 1 to 3 trunks per pad of bananas.” I can’t tell you how thrilled I would be if we actually got bananas.