Mucho Viento - Banana Carnage in the Yard

The last two weeks have had really big wind gusts and sustained wind all day and into the night. We even had the power go out for 23 hours (a first). Lots of carnage in the yard. We had probably 8 or 9 bananas, some with full/almost ready racines of bananas, blow over. When they blow over they take a wad of soil with them. This is not good, since they are on the edge of the gully where a huge amount of water thunders in the wet season.

So this is my chance to clean up the area and move bananas out to a better area. I need to stabilize the slope with permanent plantings.

Even the bed of plants under the mango looked like huge winds blew them flat. That's another project - clean up, division and cuttings.

Here's Dakota our Washington cat inspecting the new plantings. I chose two Roeblelini palms because they stay fairly short (9 feet) but are bushy and full. I planted dwarf cupey and "firecracker plant" underneath because they are good for holding the soil and stay short. The firecracker plant kind of sucks in hanging baskets, but in the ground it is a really cool plant. This will make a new permanent area that won't blow over. I'll relocate baby bananas to the grove down below and as other bananas along the driveway fall or are harvested I'll continue with the Roeblelini palms and it will look really cool! Too many projects going on - I still have to pick up all the twigs and branches that have been blowing around.

Doesn't look like much right now but in a year or two it will be a different story. I still have some finishing to do on this, but tomorrow is another day and thankfully I get to wake up to sunshine and go do it!