Well, we didn’t get to eat home-grown bananas like I thought we would. The fruit stayed small, and never even got close to ripe. Here’s a pic of the tiny hand of bananas when I cut them off because nights were starting to freeze. That was mid-November. I’m still learning how to do this right,…
We’re going to eat some of our own, home-grown bananas this year! (Crossing fingers that everything goes well…). Honestly, I had pretty much given up hope that we’d have edible bananas from our plants, even though I’d seen some bunches on other banana plants in the area before. You may recall that we had a…
It’s seed starting time! And I want to show you why and how I get my seedlings in the sun as soon as possible. One of the common questions I get is how to keep seedlings from getting leggy and flopping over. Almost always, this happens from growing them indoors in weak light. Maybe you…
You may have noticed my ongoing banana saga, with my recent update about how a flower started to appear on Christmas day. Sadly, it did not survive. And it wasn’t the freeze that killed it! On January 25th, we had a freeze that got down to about 30 degrees. I placed two radiant heaters under…
With our small-ish three-bedroom house and the pandemic bringing grown kids home for longer visits, we found we needed a little extra room. Santia wondered about buying a shed and converting it to sleeping space, like a “she-shed.” But sheds are surprisingly expensive! We like DIY-ing as much as possible (and saving money), and her…
We have a beautiful Mexican fan palm growing in our backyard, right next to my little office. I love it. Except that it’s growing so fast that it might be a monster! I’d be happy if it could somehow magically stay just like it is right now, but I know that it will eventually get…
Oh my gosh! We have bananas forming right now, in the middle of winter! Many of you have seen my previous post about growing bananas in Sacramento County – it’s actually my most popular article lately, so apparently a bunch of you are considering it. And you should! It’s a fun plant to grow, and…
Have I mentioned that this is how I got started gardening, about 42 years ago? So, I was 14 and we moved into a new house with no front garden. My mom asked if I’d like to help her design and plant grass, flowers, and trees to make our new front yard. I suggested a…