The banana circle is a garden structure that has come out of the Permaculture movement and can be installed in any climate where bananas will grow (funnily enough!).Basically it is a ridge of earth around a hole, which has bananas planted into it and in common with a lot of permaculture stuff it has a number of functions –
1. It yields bananas (I knew you would be surprised!
2. The bananas can be underplanted with other food plants such as sweet potato.
3. The hole can be a receptacle for many organic materials such as lawn clippings, manure, leaves, branches, tree shreddings – all sorts of stuff, including the output from a composting toilet. But don’t tell anyone that, they might not eat the bananas!
4. They add a tropical look and feel to any garden
I was lucky, the Permaculture group I belong to, Permaculture Sydney West, were looking for a place at which to run a workshop, so they came over one Saturday morning and in a couple of hours built the banana circle and a herb spiral (more of that in another article). This saved me some considerable hours of back breaking work. The process that we followed was this –
1. Decide where the banana circle is to go – it may sound silly to say that, but a bit of planning at this stage can prevent a whole stack of hassle later on. Banana circles are usually 2 to 3 metres across, so you need at least than much spare space and it should get plenty of sunshine. It should also be protected from strong winds and frost, if your area gets frost. I sited ours in the front yard, the back being pretty full, and next to the large mulberry tree so it gets the morning and noonday sun, but has some protection from the afternoon sun and the mulberry tree shelters it from frost.
2. Mark out the perimeter – The easiest way to do this is no get some string or rope and two sharp sticks, then tie off one stick to the other with the same length of rope as the radius of the circle you want. Push one stick into the ground at the centre of where you want your banana circle to be, then drag the other one in the dirt all the way around, forming a circle in the dirt. This will form the perimeter of the banana circle.
3. Dig the hole – If you are going to get help, this is where you will need it. If you can, wet the area thoroughly the day before to make it easier, then dig down about 500mm to 750mm so that the hole is about 750mm to 1000mm across at the top. We have good old Sydney clay here so it certainly was the fun part of the job, mattock time!
4. Make the mound - If you have not cleared away any grass, some layers of wet newspaper laid around the hole will take care of any stray green interlopers. Take the soil dug from the hole and mound it up it around the hole in the form of a ring about 60cm to 80cm across. If the soil is a bit dodgy, try mixing in some well rotted manure, compost, sand, cocopeat or some such material to improve the structure and nutritional value of the soil.
5. With the hole dug and before the bananas get in the way, fill the hole with organic matter – we used a mixture of horse poo and straw, and compost to fill the hole until it is up to the level of the top of the mound and then slightly mounded up itself. Water freely.
6. Plant the banana trees (The exciting part!) – the number of banana trees you plant depends on the size of your circle, we planted 6 and our banana circle is about 2.5 metres across. Just dig out the holes equidistant around the mound, somewhat bigger than the root ball of the banana. If you want you can leave a position free and put in a stepping stone to give easy access to the centre hole.
7. Mulch! – Once the banana’s are planted mulch them well and water them in.
8. You don’t have to, but a friend who was helping had some old pavers he didn’t want so he picked them up from his place and we placed them end to end around the outside of the circle to form a boundary and I think it looks pretty good.
Once the banana circle is complete, keep an eye on the mound of organic matter in the middles of the circle, as it rots down and flattens out, top it up with any excess organic matter you have floating around such as leaves, small branches, lawn clippings, compost – just about anything that is not too smelly or will attract small animals.
We let it settle down for a few months, it was done in early autumn, then when spring rolled around we put in a sweet potato suckers in the mound between each banana. They will then grow up and cover the mound in foliage – they look really good growing together, and take up no room in the veggie patch........., winner!
Finding Your Banana
I was given a couple of dwarf bananas from a lady over in Ryde that sat in pots and did nothing much for a couple of years (the banana circle idea had been on the boil for quite a while) but I needed four more. I did cheat and buy two from Bunnings, but the put the word out I was looking for a couple of suckers – banana suckers! I was offered a couple by a friend of ours in Richmond so I went around and collected them. One was very small and passed away early on care of the next door neighbours’ lethal soccer ball. Fortunately another couple of friends had bananas and they were able to help me out with a sucker to replace it.
Every year, banana plants produce one or two suckers (one each side of the main plant) which is how they reproduce. In the commercial, tropical world they slash the parent banana once it has borne fruit and then bring on the strongest of the suckers, cutting off any other below the soil level. In a backyard situation (or front yard as it is in this case) particularly in Sydney, it will take some years for the bananas to fruit, so when you cut off the suckers, pot them on then give them to friends. When the banana does fruit you can cut it down and put it into the centre of the circle, leaving the strongest sucker in place and away you go again.
Happy banana-ing!
