Do you know what kind of tree this is? I guess the bananas growing and the title of this post kind of give it away. Yup, it’s a banana tree. And it’s growing in our yard, together with 2 mango trees, an orange tree, a date tree, a “zaban” tree (a fruit we don’t have in the US), and a few others. But since I have never had those kinds of trees growing in my yard before, I had no idea how to take care of them. Do you prune them? Do you let them grow wild? Do you need to water them? Etc. Since I didn’t know what to do, I asked a gardener I knew to come and help me learn.
He was so very helpful, and showed us how to teach the zaban tree to climb a rope and how to take care of all the other trees as well. And the banana trees – they are so picky! Who knew? Do you see the little banana tree in the foreground of the picture? He said that that is the baby banana tree. If you dig out the baby banana tree, the mama banana tree isn’t happy anymore and won’t give any bananas. Also, the mama banana tree will only give bananas one time, then you can cut her down and her oldest child will become the mama banana tree now that will give bananas. And do you see the leaf that is dying and touching the ground? He said that if you just yank it off, it will leave a raw spot on the bark and then the banana tree won’t give bananas until its “owie” is all healed. Instead, you need to cut it off, like with a machete (note to self – next trip to “Walmart,” be sure to buy a machete). Also, the dirt around the banana trees has to have enough mulch/peat-ish stuff that it isn’t hard. And during dry season we’ll have to water them. And it’s good to have rocks or bricks around it, too, so that the water doesn’t run off.
I’m glad that the gardener came by to teach us how to care for our picky plants! And I’m glad that all of our plants aren’t that picky.
Aren’t you glad that God cares for us, even when we’re as picky as a banana tree?