Going Bananas

Thanks to our friends Hadi, Tim and Clare, a tropical paradise is taking shape at 10 Arawa Place.

Part of our permaculture design includes a 'sun trap' and 'heat sink' along the northwest corner of the house. A combination of strategies will allow for conditions suitable to grow bananas at latitude 40 degrees South.

After interns John and Amy helped take down the old deck (to be rebuilt into a fence - blog post pending), we filled the trench with rubble and sand in preparation for a brick patio. Simultaneously we built two planting wells using some concrete retainers we bought on Trade Me. The wells are 600 mm deep (2 feet) and filled with compost.

We'll add the bricks later which will act as a heat sink - moderating daytime temperatures and holding off frost during winter nights.

Painting the house a dark color and adding a fence to protect against strong winds from the West will provide the other elements for our tropical corner with Bananas and passion fruits which came as gifts from Hadi, TIm and Clare.

Fruits planted since October: apple, fig, peach, plum, banana, passion fruit, loquat, guava. Pending: feijoa, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, lemon, lemonade.

Yum, Estwing