I haven't updated this in quite awhile. I have been in North Carolina for 6 weeks now. What a tremendously better climate than PA!
I cut my banana down to two leaves so I could fit in in my car for the 530 mile trip, which got rid of most of the funky leaves that burnt. I'm pretty convinced it was the soluble MiracleGro that burnt the leaves and turned them black. I have since transplanted the banana into a 20 gallon felt pot, gave it all new soil, sprayed it down with a mixture of organic fungicide and neem oil several times and hit it heavily with 5-5-5 several times. Despite the much colder temps and short days, it has put out a bunch of new leaves since I've gotten here.
We haven't hit freezing yet, but we have hit 34. The 10 day forecast is borderline a few days, so I am going to have to haul this thing in and out on occasion.
In addition to the banana, the very first week I was there, I built a garden from scratch. By the way, you can fit 6 foot long sections of lumber in a Camaro, and it takes 3 Home Depot trips to bring home 35 1 cu. ft. bags of topsoil.
Here, you can find oregano, basil, kale, a second (successive) crop of radishes and beets.
My first crop of radishes planted the first week of October are mostly ready for harvest.
Heirloom multi-colored carrots are coming along.
Broccoli and brussels sprouts.
I also ripped out the healthiest pepper plant I had growing in PA, stuck it on a pot and drove it down with me. It's still kicking butt, putting out tons of extremely hot, delicious fruits.
And my Canary Island Date Palm is still growing like a weed. I can't believe in March it was a little blade of glorified grass.
Because I am a zone-pusher, I took a handful of cuttings from my tomato plants before I dumped and mulched them in PA, seeing if I could get them to root and grow here. Even they are growing like weeds and are flowering. This plant below was a 6 inch long sucker I stuck in a pint glass full of water two weeks before I left Pennsylvania.
I know they don't have much of a chance here, but I am enjoying the attempt and will try to protect them as long as I can.
The Cretan date palm pits I ordered from Europe also sprouted and are growing.
