A little fun experiment of creating a banana circle in our orchard. The circle is strategicly located where rain water from the land drains to and on a north facing slope. Since bananas are extremely hungry and thirsty, we want to recycle water and nutrient run off to feed them.

The circle is constructed using misi luki bananas, which are interplanted with vetiver grass and canna lilies. The idea is to create a closed system where biomass produced by vetiver and cannalilies can feed bananas. Lemongrass can also be used for this purpose .

Lastly we added Taro which likes similar conditions as well as having edible leaves and root.

Although it’s not visible, far edges of the circle have sugar cane on one side and Mexican sunflower in the other. Hoping to integrate banana circle into bigger forest system in future.

Just like us bees enjoy spending winter inside their cosy hive, eating honey and snuggling for warmth.

To have success with bees, observing and taking notes is the key. Here is a few tips to keep your bees happy over winter.

-Reduce and rearrange hives if you haven’t already. Remove empty frames, boxes and also entrances. Rearrange each hive in a way to keep brood frames together with honey frames at the either end. ?

-Check each hive to make sure they have enough honey over winter. ?

-Protect your hives from the elements of nature like extreme cold, high wind and dampness. ?

-Keep up the OBSERVING. Do a quick check for food supplies, dead bees from entrances and general health of the hive. ?

Enjoy the quite time until honey season starts again.

Pruning Trees

Keep those trees PRUNED!

Trees have evolved being pruned by storms, animals and even simply by the weight of fruits. Pruning keeps the trees healthy by improving air flow, stimulating growth hormones and removing the dead/diseases branches.

Here we have a Linden tree that has many medicinal properties, also great for pollarding or coppicing. These trees are also great mineral accumulators. They are amazing all around producing lots of organic material, mining nutrients and producing medicinal honey and flowers.

Dan pruned the tree after we harvested the flowers. You can clearly see the difference it makes. Pruning is an art, and it gets better by practicing. So keep it PRUNED!