Dividing Banana Plants

Blood banana plant ready to divide

I have two banana plants in my collection that I've had for several years.

Both of them have sprouted pups (also known as babies or suckers) over the past few years.

This summer, I noticed they both had a few pups that were ready to be removed from the mother plants.

Here is a picture of my blood banana plant before I started dividing it.



If we take a closer look, you can see there are several mature pups ready to be removed.

Mother banana plant (middle) with several mature pups

There's no requirement that says the pups must be removed from the mother plant, my bananas were growing just fine.

Pot-bound banana plant

But my plant is extremely pot-bound and I didn't want to repot it into a larger pot, it's big enough already.

Plus I have a few friends that would love to have a banana plant of their own.

So that's why I decided to remove a few pups from each plant.


If you want to try to propagate your banana plant in this way, the first thing you'll want to do is make sure the pup you're planning to remove is mature enough.

That means, the pup should have it's own roots. To check the pup's root development, gently remove the plant from it's pot. Then brush back the soil around the base of the pup to see if it has developed it's own roots. 

If the pup doesn't have any roots, or only has small roots, it's not ready to be removed from the mother plant and won't survive on it's own.

Obvious root growth on banana plant pup

Once you've established that the pup is ready to be removed from the mother plant, gently tease apart the roots of the pup and mother plant, trying to free as many of the pups roots as possible. Try not to break any of the pups roots (have patience, this may be a difficult task).

Next, you'll want to take a sharp, sterile knife and cut the pup from the mother plant. Again, try not to cut off any of the pup's roots, just sever the connection to the mother plant if possible.

Remove banana pup from the mother plant

Once you've severed the connection to the mother plant, continue to tease the roots of the pup away from the roots of the mother plant until the pup is free.

Banana plant pup severed from mother plant

Banana pup

Now that you have successfully removed the pup from the mother plant, you can pot it up into it's own container.


Be certain to use a clean container; and if it will be outside, make sure the container has drainage holes.

Also take care to use fresh potting soil. Never use garden soil for potted plants.

Place pup at same level in new pot

Plant the pup in it's new pot at the same depth it was in the old pot, taking care to cover all the roots.

Once you've filled the pot with soil, water it well.

The new pup plant might droop for a few days until it gets used to living on it's own.

It's a good idea to keep it out of full sun and keep it well watered until it has perked back up.



That's it, now you have a new banana plant to share with a friend (aren't they lucky!?).

Banana pup transferred to it's own pot

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Weekly Flower Arrangement

I love interesting foliage almost as much as I do flowers, so this week's (flower) arrangement is heavy on the colorful foliage.

Over the past few years, I have been incorporating striking contrasts of foliage into my gardens. I wanted to highlight some of that foliage in this week's arrangement.

Once I had the foliage arranged in the vase, I decided it needed an extra pop of color, so I accented the foliage with a couple small flowers. I usually do the opposite; select the flowers as the highlight, and then accent them with foliage.

This arrangement is very different than the ones I've done in the past (you can click on the image to see a larger picture)...

This week's arrangement focuses on foliage

This week's arrangement includes:

• Angel Wing Begonia (pink flower at very top, dark polka dotted foliage around the top in back)
• Coleus foliage (two different types, multicolored foliage center right and center left)
• Artichoke foliage (silver-ish foliage on top right and center left)
• Lungwort foliage (silver-ish foliage on bottom)
• Purple Palace Sedum (dark foliage center with tiny flower buds)
• Autumn Joy Sedum (center - with two green poofs of tiny flower buds)
• Zinnia flowers (small pink flower accents)

So what do you think? Do you like the foliage with minor floral accents, or do you prefer more flowers?

Join in the fun... I hope I've inspired you to create your own arrangement. If you want to share a link to pictures of your own flower arrangement or current blooms, please do! I would love to see what's blooming in your gardens! You can post a link here in the comments, or you can post a picture directly to my Facebook page.

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Harvesting Like Crazy

Last year I was much better about posting what I was harvesting as I harvested. This year, I've had so many other things I wanted to write about that I've neglected posting about my harvests.

Well, it's getting to be the time of year where harvesting is at the top of my list of gardening tasks. In fact, I've been busy harvesting daily, which has been awesome!!

I have been keeping track of what I've been harvesting, I just haven't been sharing it with all of you (which probably isn't very interesting reading for you anyway). So I thought I would give a quick run down of what I've been harvesting.

Some first harvests - tomatoes, kohlrabi, cukes and okra

First peppers

Kohlrobi

Okra

Garlic

Green beans (second large harvest)

I haven't harvested many peppers yet because I want them to get nice and big for canning. I'm planning on canning peppers and cucumbers (pickles) this year as we have for the past two years.

This year, I also hope to can tomato sauce and salsa...and possibly green beans. We've already made two large batches of fresh salsa, so yummy!!

Hope all of your harvests are going well too, how will you be preserving your harvests?


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Free Houseplants Giveaway!!

Some succulents

One of my most popular blog posts over the last few weeks has been a post I wrote this spring, Tips For Repotting Houseplants.

I thought it was kind of funny, because I just got done repotting a bunch of my houseplants.

Well, it also got me thinking... after dividing and repotting several of my houseplants, I have a bunch of extras.

And that means I can share those extras with you!!


So, I'm going to have a contest to see who I will get to share my plants with.

I have a large variety of common houseplants, as well as a variety of succulents and tropicals in my collection. The prize will include cuttings and divisions from a variety of these plants. I will get a small box and see how many I can fit into it for you.

A bunch of my houseplants

I'll give you two weeks to enter the contest (deadline is Friday, September 9th at midnight central). You can enter your name in the drawing more than once.

Here are all the ways you can enter...

• Leave a comment here and tell me what your favorite houseplant is (or type of houseplant), and what's #1 on your wishlist.  

• Write a blog post about your favorite houseplant, or something houseplant related, and post the link here in the comments. (make sure to include a link back to this blog post on your blog post mentioning my contest)

• Become a new follower of my blog

• Like me on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/GetBusyGardening)

• Start following me on Twitter (GetBusyGardenin - yes without the last 'g')

**Please make sure to post a comment listing each thing you do (ie: start following my blog, FB or Twitter) - otherwise I won't be able to track the contest entries. Also make sure you leave your email address in the comments if it's not on your blog's profile. Once I choose a winner, I will post it on my blog and I will contact the winner via email.

In two weeks, I will draw a winner randomly using random.org (heck, I might even pick two winners!) and the lucky winner(s) will get a box full of houseplants. I will select what's included in the box, but I will try to take suggestions into consideration if I have the plant you're looking for.

If you live outside of the Continental US, you can't win the plants (unfortunately), but feel free to include a blog post if you want to write one.

So tell your friends, tell your family, tell you neighbors! And enter the contest now.

Some of my houseplants enjoying the outdoors

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This Week's Flower Arrangement

Last week I was on vacation, so I didn't do a flower arrangement. I was excited to get one made this week.

There are so many beautiful blooms in the garden right now, I could do a ton of different arrangements. When the creative juices start flowing, it's really hard to stop at just one.

My August What's Bloomin' post was filled with tropical and annual flowers. In keeping with that theme, I decided to use some of those same flowers in this arrangement.

The beautiful contrasts of colors in the garden were the inspiration for this week's arrangement, I wanted bright color, and wanted to stick to purples, reds and bright greens. I love the tropical feel of it too!

Weekly flower arrangement

Here's what's in it:

• Zinnias (large red flower)
• Dahlias (large purple flower)
• Castor bean flower (red pom poms in the middle)
• Peruvian spider flower foliage (bright green long flat leaves on top right and bottom left)
• Wandering Jew (purple and silver foliage sticking out around the bottom)
• Sedum (bright green foliage cascading out of the front of the vase)
• Canna lily flowers (red spikes shooting out the top)
• Coleus (bright green in center and dark purple in center) 
• Heuchera foliage (yellowish rounded leaves on bottom right and left)
• Castor bean leaf (dark foliage on top left)

This definitely one of my favorites! If you want to join in the fun and share your flower arrangements, please include a link to your in the comments. I love seeing what others are doing with the flowers from their gardens.

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Starting Second Vegetable Crops

Now that the early vegetables like peas, greens and some herbs are done for the season, we'll have to wait a whole year to taste their garden fresh goodness again.... or will we?

Peas

Yesterday I started second crops of lettuce, peas, cilantro, kohlrabi and dill.

All of these plants can tolerate cold temps and will survive a light frost.

This is the first year I've tried starting second crops, we'll see how well they do.

I'm hoping to have plenty of cilantro to make salsa this fall.

As for the dill, we can a ton of pickles every fall and I would love to use dill from the garden rather than having to buy it.

Kohlrabi

It may be a little to late to start the peas and dill, I meant to start them a few weeks ago but forgot.

The maturity times on the packages will bring me well past our average first frost date.

Oh well, it's not like I have anything to lose since I harvested the seeds from the early crop plants in my garden.

But if we have a warm fall, they will have plenty of time to mature before they're killed by the cold weather. In fact, some vegetables actually do better in cooler temperatures in the fall.

If you're interested in starting late season crops, there is still time for some things.

Lettuce

Other frost hardy, cold weather lovers you could start now include spinach, kale, mustard greens, swiss chard, radishes, even some types of carrots.

Sweet Basil

Basil is a fast growing herb that you could also start now, but it's not frost hardy so it will have to be protected from frost (or harvested before frost).

You can find seedlings of some of these late crop vegetables at garden centers if you don't want to start them from seed this late.

Otherwise, look at the maturity date on the seed packet.

Anything that's quick to mature and/or is frost hardy is a great candidate for a late season crop.

Our average first frost date in Minneapolis is around September 20th. But we usually won't get a hard freeze/killing frost until late September-early October.

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Welcome To The Jungle...

...ahem... I mean welcome to my vegetable garden.

It has been slow going for most of the summer, but my vegetable garden has exploded over the past few weeks. All of the plants have gotten so huge that it's difficult to walk through to harvest. 

Tomato plants

I'm very happy, because I my vegetable garden hasn't been this prolific in a couple of years.

View of my jungle of a vegetable garden

I was optimistic last fall because I spent extra time preparing my soil, adding tons of rich compost and chicken manure.

But optimism quickly tuned to worry this spring.

It was unseasonably cold and rainy and it took a looooong time for any of my seedlings to grow.

I guess I don't have to worry anymore, because it's a jungle out there now.

I've already been harvesting lots of different stuff, and there is a ton more coming.

Here are a few close ups...

Bell peppers

Banana peppers

Kohlrabi

Red roaster pepper (huge!!)

Future squash, yum!

I think I better start researching recipes and ways to preserve my harvest. It's gonna be a bountiful one! Yeah!!

How's your vegetable garden doing so far this year?

Giant squash plant growing out of my compost bin

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August What's Bloomin'

Last month, lillies were the stars of the show (July What's Bloomin'). Well this month, the annuals and tropicals have stolen the spotlight. Again, there are so many blooms in the gardens right now, I can't include them all or this would be a very looooong post.

Below are pictures of my current favorites...

Dahlia

Peruvian spider flower

Hardy Hibiscus

Crocosmia

Hardy Hibiscus

Brugmansia

Zinnias

Canna Lily

Galdiola

Castor Bean

Rudbeckia

Phlox

Black Eyed Susan

What's bloomin' in your gardens right now?

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Give Your Potted Plants a Boost

Decorative planters and hanging baskets filled with flowers are a fun way to add color to decks, patios and front steps during the summer. They look gorgeous when first planted or when you buy them at the nursery.

Annual potted plant

But July and August are tough months for annual potted plants.

By now, your potted plants might look leggy and overgrown, or maybe they've stopped flowering and are starting to look dead.

Now is a great time to give your potted plants a boost to revitalize them and get them looking beautiful again.



Here are a few general maintenance tips for revitalizing your potted plants:

• Pull out any dead annuals, allowing room for the healthy ones to thrive.
• Trim off any leggy or dead growth. 
• Pinch off new growth to keep the plants compact.
• Deadhead the flowers (remove all the dead flowers).
• Unless you plan to collect the seeds, cut off any seed heads that are forming. This will allow the plant to focus it's energy on forming new blooms, rather than wasting energy producing seeds.

Once you finish tidying up the plants, give them a boost with some fertilizer.

Colorburst granular and Miracle Grow liquid fertilizers

Before fertilizing, make sure the plant isn't dehydrated. If you fertilize a plant that is dehydrated, you risk burning your plants with the fertilizer. If the soil is dry and the plant is drooping, water it well and allow it to perk back up before adding fertilizer.

You can buy either a granular type fertilizer, or liquid fertilizer for your potted plants. The granular fertilizer is a slow release type fertilizer that you'll only need to add once or twice during the growing season. The liquid type fertilizer can be used every time you water.

General purpose fertilizers have an even balance of all three of the numbers on the label (i.e.: 10-10-10 or 20-20-20). I use Miracle Grow general purpose liquid fertilizer every time I water my potted plants during the summer.

For blooming plants you should buy a fertilizer where the center number on the label is higher. I use a granular type fertilizer for my blooming plants, which has 15-30-15.

Loosen up the soil before adding granular fertilizer

To apply the granular fertilizer, loosen up the soil on top of the pot.


This will help to distribute the granules more evenly.



Follow the directions to see how much you should add to your potted plant.

Most labels will tell you how much to use for the size of pot your plants are in.

Sprinkle granules evenly over the soil

Sprinkle the granules evenly over the soil and then water well.

Taking the time to follow these steps will have your annual potted planters looking beautiful again in no time.

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Follow-up On The Trees Stealing Nutrients

Two weeks ago today, we put in a a couple of raised garden beds to try to revive an area of our vegetable garden.

In case you missed it, I suspected that some trees around the border of the vegetable garden are stealing the nutrients from some of my vegetables. Here is the post I wrote about it when we first built the raised beds... Are The Trees Stealing Nutrients?

I think I was right about the trees, because WOW what a difference the raised beds have made. The broccoli, cauliflower and squash have grown exponentially since we installed the raised beds.

I guess this is a clear sign that I need to build more permanent raised beds for these areas in the spring. The pictures below were taken exactly two weeks apart.

Broccoli/Cauliflower bed - July 31st, 2011

Broccoli/Cauliflower bed - August 14th, 2011

Squash bed - July 31st, 2011

Squash bed - August 14, 2011

I'm so excited that these raised beds have done the trick, I only wish I would have installed them earlier!

Has anyone else had this experience? I'd love to hear more about your experience and how you build your raised beds.

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