Cutting down the banana tree

Yesterday evening I decided it was time to cut down the Zebrine Banana tree! We were expecting our first hard freeze, the pond this morning had ice covering half of it. This dwarf banana is not supposed to be hardy in our area, zone 7.

Here is the banana before I cut it down in the weedy patch that just goes crazy during the heat of the summer. Wish I could make it a 3 season garden at least, instead of just a spring garden.

The stump shown here is at least 5 inches in diameter. The trunk and leaves must have weighted 25-30 pounds when I carried it to the brush pile. So easy to cut I was amazed, two strokes and it was done.This was planted from a 1 gallon pot in May!

I filled a recycling container with leaves and set it over the stump, then I added more leaves around it. Not sure if I killed it or saved it, time will tell I guess.

Our house and dried up pond taken last evening. See the dried up Johnson Grass, that is usually in the water. Another out of control plant as you can see. The cold frames are seen on the left of this image.

The leaves are down what now?

Most of the leaves are down, some stubborn oaks have not finished yet. I'm wearing two jackets and sitting out on the porch, 48 degree right now and sunny.

We are leaving the leaves on the grass this year as nature intended all along! So many of us rake or blow them away removing nutrients intended to help the soil. The blower people can really annoy people like us who just want to enjoy our gardens in peace, we have no blowers here but most of the neighbors do.

Just finished mowing the leaves for the third time, mulching them in. The leaves are mostly chopped up and mixing into the sparse grass in our lawn. We will have to rake up and compost the leaves in the gravel driveway, garden beds and walkways.

The soil here has a lot of clay and it opens up with big cracks during the dry spells of summer so we are hoping the leaves will help the soil if this is done every other year. Every other year (last year) the red oaks dump endless scores of acorns here. If we let the acorns stay then they sprout up everywhere. We are always fighting to keep the forest from taking our little green spot in the woods.

In a little while I'll be planting more daffodils, I think I've become a plant collecting addict. Meg thinks so at least. For weeks I've checked brent and Becky's Bulbs waiting for the bulb clearance sale. Thanksgiving night I discovered the 50% off sale and ordered another $50 worth, would have been a $100. Beside me is $50 worth of bulbs I purchased at @#$%mart, I believe I'll return some of them.

The bulbs to be planted today are:
24 Narcissus 'Replete'  (donations to: Susan G Komen for the Cure)
24 Narcissus ' Pink Charms' (donations to: Susan G Komen for the Cure)
30 Crocus 'Jeanne D'Arc'  (white)
40 Muscari 'Deft Blue Mix' M. armeniacum, M. album and  M. latifolium

Not sure but given I've ordered these bulbs from Brent and Beckys, we will likely have at least 30 different daffodils growing in our garden!

Narcissus ordered 10 of each Actaea, Delibes, Falconet, Fruit Cup, Lieke, Odorus flore pleno, Sailboat, Silver Chimes, Sir Winston Churchhill and Sound.

Crocus ordered 10 of each chrysanthus 'Gipsy Girl', sieberi 'Firefly', tommasinianus 'Ruby Giant', vernus 'King of Striped' and versicolor 'Picturatus'


Speaking of crocus, the fall crocus last blooms were on Thanksgiving day. Fun things seen on Thanksgiving day my first Zonkey (cross between a donkey and a zebra) and 3 Brown Creepers on the oak tree next to our porch these tiny birds climb the tree trunks by circling them as they climb, hard to see if you are not looking.