mackmccaleb

Late last summer I dug the pit for my banana circle. It was just after a tropical storm so I gathered up my neighbor's storm debris and piled it up as the first bottom layer of my mound, essentially creating a hugelkulter raised bed to plant into. I dug my pit approximately 10' across and 3' deep. I layered cardboard in the bottom of my pit and over the top of my raised beds, then watered thoroughly, mulched with pine straw and watered again. Through the fall and winter I let the bed rest while I filled the pit with any organic waste I could find in the neighborhood, mostly leaves, grass clippings and pine straw. I put roughly 900 gallons of mulch into the pit (estimated by about 30 bags of 30 gallon paper yard waste bags I picked up). In March, I planted. Into the top of the raised beds, I planted two Blue Java Ice Cream, one Ladyfinger, one Golden African, one Raja Puri and one Gran Nain. Next, I interplanted three fig trees, two mullberries, zucchini, mint, onions, basil, tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, canna lillies and mexican sunflowers. In April, I found a local banana grower who had discarded several banana pups on the side of the road, so I picked the four best ones and added them to my circle. They're unknown, but maybe I can get help identifying them with some pictures. Has anyone tried growing bananas in a system like this? Please, ask me questions, let me know if you think I've made mistakes. Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated. Pictures to come in a following post. Ill take some current pics tomorrow and also any I can find of the process of planting. Looking forward to your critiques!