Second Musa Ensete maurelii - The Red Banana planted out 🌿

 

It's been quite a nice day today weather wise .  I got a load of washing dry on the line before the hit and miss  showers came along .

We have more heavy and thundery showers coming tomorrow , so I thought I'd take the opportunity to get the other banana plant in the ground . 

This qualifies as "no dig " since after pulling it out of the ground  at the end of last Autumn ,I put a large empty tub in the hole to keep it open and ready for me to easily re-plant the banana in the Spring .

O.k. I did widen it a little bit with the shovel as some of the earth had fallen in around the edges .

But I didn't have to do too much and the banana plant slipped out of the tub quite easily and dropped in place with out any damage . 

Very relieved , because this year my two plants are not in such good condition as they usually are after being in a shed with a leaking roof . They would normally have three or four good leaves . 

I won't cut off the dead leaves until it has settled in .

Hopefully now with the rain that is coming tomorrow , it will soon perk up  . 

My daughter gave me a beautiful Canna , which I may plant slightly to one side of it , but that's all I'm doing today. I really have to pace myself .

Epiphyllum var. "Marilyn Monroe" - today's last update before bed time --- will it be pink ? will it be white ?

                           One petal has begun to open .....oh no..... grr.....slug nibble !

                                       See you tomorrow morning  😊🌿 x

Over-wintering Musa Ensete maurelii

 It probably won't be too bad here on the Lizard, Cornwall , but the forecast is for much colder temperatures from this evening .

Musa Ensete maurelii is a tender variety of Banana and will not survive outside over winter .

I decided to get the Banana plants out and into their over-wintering corner in the shed . I'd rather do it while it is not too cold and the ground soft from the showers we had yesterday evening .

They haven't grown as big this year due to the heat wave and drought  . My efforts for watering going only to the vegetable garden .

This little Robin flew down to me as soon as I took out my garden fork  , eagerly awaiting grubs .

This was extremely heavy ,but I made sure to get out and not damage as much of the roots as possible .

I know that some people trim the roots and cut off the leaves , but I try not to damage any of my plants as best I can . 

I plant them up again , with some of the earth they were growing in and a mixture of spent compost that I had used to grow my Tomato plants in and a couple of good handfuls of fresh multi-purpose compost .

I gave them a little rain water from the water-but to settle them in , but not too much , as the earth was quite damp from the recent showers .

Then they go onto wooden pallets , under cover and surrounded with polystyrene that I have saved from packaging .

They have just enough light from the clear plastic corrugated roofing .

(I make sure to move them away from the leaking bit of the new roof )

I water them very sparingly over the winter months and not at all if the weather is freezing . 

My aim is to just keep them ticking over . This works for me and these banana plants are ....hmm ..quite a few years old now ..... maybe six , seven years or more . 

I also made a start pulling all the grass and weeds from between the paving slabs that surround my greenhouse . Loathsome job !

Weeded and tidied all the pots and tubs up there too . All of these things should have gone into the ground during the Summer , but it became too hot for me to work in the garden , so I had just dragged them all together around the water-but...which also soon dried up . I thought I might lose many of my plants , but they are looking a bit better now for the drop  of rain we've had .

I tried to fix the cracked window in the greenhouse roof .....

I thought that if I got some Copydex glue and squeezed it along the line of the crack , that it would run into the crack , set and job done . Well it sets like rubber doesn't it ? It does !  

I couldn't find my tube of Copydex , but found a big squeezy bottle of children's craft PVA glue . 

Same thing ...non ?

O.k so it ran down the window and I expected it to set and then I had in my mind to run a sharp knife along it to neaten it up .

I thought it wouldn't take long to set and left it for the night .

I could hear it raining during the night and felt quite smug with myself for fixing it .

Next morning I went to fill my watering can to water the salad leaves I am growing in the shed ...

....and this happened !   Bubbles ...lots of bubbles !

I looked up to see that all the glue had dissolved and run down the pie into the water-but !

So for the first time this year , the water-but was full to the brim and I had no choice but to empty it !

I,ve got it all cleaned out now , but I am back to square one with the cracked window  .

I better go and work it out again ! ( as the song from Oliver goes 🙄 )

I'm now thinking sticky tape of some sort , duct tape ..or maybe Super Glue .....

Wishing you all a great week my friends !

Bows and Arrows and Banana Plants .

 

So next morning , there it is ...still in it's pot .

We were forecast rain , but there was no sign of it . Husband called out to me that we were taking the grandchildren out in half an hour , so to hurry up please  . 

I carried on digging , with the dry earth falling back in as I shovelled it out , but managed to make this fair sized hole . 

"Time to go !"  O.k. I put everything away again  . Quickly washed my hands and jumped into the  car .

He had been talking about this for days now and I had been worrying about it . Yep ! Taking a 10 year old boy  and a 7 year old little girl to Have a Go Archery with The Lizard Peninsula Bowmen .

DANGEROUS DANGEROUS DANGEROUS those words kept going round and around in my head and my PTSD brain didn't even want to think about it and so I deliberately kept myself so busy that I didn't have time to think about it . Oh my goodness ..now I'm thinking about it !

We'll just go and have a look , he said and maybe just our grandson will have a go if he wants . 

He absolutely loved it ! Amanda was our excellent teacher . There is quite a lot to remember , you have to be quite strong and my grandson got two dead centre shots !

 Then she asked if I'd like to have a go and I heard myself say "o.k" Next thing I'm being measured up for a bow and having  my eyesight checked  and being strapped into a leather arm guard and told how to stand ready to shoot !   Me and that word "shoot" don't really go together.....my arms were trembling and next thing I was back with Amanda standing over the line being shown how to load the arrow , pull back and let go .

Pull back , string to nose, arm up hand just under the chin .Close right eye , look through the view finder .

Head up and let go . I'm right handed but my left eye is stronger , so they said I have to have a left handed bow . So my left hand has got to learn the" muscle memory" ..strangely not opening up to let go fast enough ..but Amanda said that the muscle memory would soon come and it would now be about lots of practice and building up strength to shoot further distances . . . . like eventually to the top of the field and beyond !

I got all three arrows into the middle ! Oh ! My Goodness ! So now I'm signed up to do a full course !

I can't believe I just did that ! Feels amazing ! I feel amazing. So happy to have learned a new skill .

Can't stop smiling to myself and my grandson is so happy we did this too ! We both can't stop smiling !

So then we had a very late lunch , took the children to the park then dropped them off home again . Went for a walk over the cliff fields , it began to rain as we returned to the car , which also makes me happy ! I know you're sick of hearing me say this ,but , I want rain to refill my empty water-but .

Had a cup of tea and got straight back to getting the Banana plant into the ground .

I will sweep up the earth from the grass tomorrow .

The Banana Plant , Musa ensete maurellii will look fabulous as it begins to grow again . It is a real beauty I think , with it's red leaves .

Another lovely Sunset over my neighbour's lovely garden .

What a day ....tonight I,ll be dreaming about bows and arrows and banana plants !

Ensete ventricosum " Maurelii "

 I finally dug up my big Ensete ventricosum "Maurelii "/ the Red Abyssinian Banana .
 It has been very happy on this North facing bank through the summer..but I know that it  just would not survive through the Winter here..I have tried .
 I,ve been going on about digging this up for weeks now and my friend gave me a gentle nudge to get on with it !  ( as you can see it was getting dark too ! ) and it is now up in the woodshed safe from the winter weather .
   I will get a bag of new compost to mulch over it's roots , but probably wont water it at all now, until next spring , unless it is looking particularly sad .
 This was an expensive plant and with a little care it can be planted out again early next Summer . This lovely Banana can get between 8-10ft high and 5-10ft wide ....but at some stage it will be too big for me to keep lifting . I have been taking pups from it and bringing them on , which will eventually replace it .
  Musa Basjoo is the most hardy one ,but mine are still too small to plant out yet .

Banana plants - Spring

We took a ride over to Hayle Plants to collect a couple of baby Banana plug plants that I,d bought online , actually I bought them from Plantaholics but I was to collect them from Hayle Plants next door....anyway very excited .. as it is always been closed whenever we,ve tried  to visit .

  Blue sky..we've had some squalls ,hail and thunder , it is still a little blustery , but brightening up now .

  It was a lovely drive ..all the daffodil fields are looking so beautiful right now .

We found the place , its quite close to the Golf Club,where my husband likes to practice on the driving range . I usually sit doing my embroidery in the car while waiting for him , but now I can come and look at the plants and get ideas for the garden .

They are very busy filling up the main huge greenhouse with lots of beautiful plants .
 I  love the succulents ..unfortunately the one I would have liked was not for sale ..but Bess told me they will be bringing more in and maybe they'll have that one .

A couple more photos of this splendid greenhouse ...just give me a deckchair and I could sit here quite happily all day ..lovely and warm ... aaah  .

My two Musa Basjoo Banana babies ,were actually quite big and very healthy looking specimens .

I grew one from seed about twenty years ago , it grew very big and I eventually planted it outside . After three years though it began to dwindle away and last Autumn I decided to dig it up and give it some more intensive care and pampering .

Here it is , it is putting up a new shoot now . I just cant remember which variety of Banana it was . I really would like to have a clump of Bananas in my garden  and Musa Basjoo is the one that does best here in Cornwall  . It is known to be the hardiest one .

 The rest of the day I spent potting these little ones up and tidying up my big old Musa Ensete  maureii red banana  . This is such a beautiful banana plant, but not very hardy , not even here in Cornwall , this one should always be dragged into a shelter zone for the Winter .     ( By the way , I,m talking Cornwall England here , not Cornwall in Canada ...who are having some really cold and wet weather at the moment !  Hi ! Cornwall in Canada ! )

                   Musa Ensete maurelii red banana - before and after its tidy up .
In the Autumn , when I drag it in ,I dont take any of the compost off, I dont disturb the roots at all . I dont cut any of it's leaves off . Some of the outer leaves go crispy and that is fine . I dont water at all through the winter .
 Today I have taken off a few of the crispy leaves , but not all of them , see my picture above . There is a lovely new leaf coming up and beginning to unfurl .
I scraped off some of the old compost on top and refreshed with some multipurpose compost . I ,m thinking about to planting it outside into the ground , but that wont be  for a few weeks yet .Its either that or it should really go into a bigger pot  .
 Here is a slideshow of how I brought it in for the Winter a couple of years ago .

                    I pulled off a couple of those shoots and potted them up .

I also put fresh compost in that time, as the plastic container was much bigger than the original pot .
  Hope the slide show works or I'll have to come back and re-edit this !