My Climate Change Garden

If you have been following the story of the banana plant growing outside the Co-Op in Eastbourne then I am afraid its not good news. Despite the mild late Autumn weather and wonderful sunny days on the South Coast, the bananas never made it to any shade of yellow as you can see from the photo I took this morning.

I always knew it was highly unlikely  that bananas growing outside in the UK  could ripen. I suppose the romantic in me was hoping for a miracle. Chatting about bananas appears to be a popular pastime for many gardeners on the net . The wonderfully named International Banana Society has a webiste at http://www.bananas.org/ where you can exchange experiences about growing these fabulous plants in all corners of the globe.

One of the most popular entries recently appears to be from Big Dog in Tennessee who has created a picture story of how he puts his bananas to sleep for the winter:

http://www.bananas.org/f15/time-put-bananas-sleep-winter-310.html

This post has received over 23,000 visits – mainly from American gardeners where there is a much wider variety of hardiness zones – see my next blog!

If you live in the UK and need specific advice on how to protect your bananas for the winter then visit the less inspiring but useful Gardeners World site which explains the process in British style:

–http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/bananas-wrap/