Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 11:23:12 -0400
From: “N.A. Booko”
Subject: Picking fresh banana in Chatham County . . .
I planted my two banana trees today. Sufficient fertilizer and plenty of water to get them off to a good start. How can I not have a bumper crop next season?
After all, I am constantly boasting and bellowing on the Chatlist about my horticultural expertise. How my hydrangeas and phlox are most likely to always take top honors at county flower shows. If all goes well, maybe I will export any excess of bananas I grow.
I have for years, seen in this county and all around, folks growing banana trees in their yards. Some are even famous or well known. Those two in Pittsboro have become a landmark. Every year when they are cut down by frost, they are trimmed back and the following spring they are there again. One on either side of the sidewalk. By summer’s end, they have grown to the point that they hide the walk, the front porch and some of the upstairs windows. But are there any bananas? Must be doing something wrong.
There is a secret to growing banana trees in Chatham that will bear fruit- and I’m not telling. I don’t want the competition.
N.A. Booko lives, writes and gardens in Chatham County- I am just at the point of figuring out if I have space for a coconut grove. Is it illegal to grow palm trees on Highway right-of-way?