Specialty Gardening: Garden Shots 2- Summer's here, keep those pics coming!, 1 by LeawoodGardener

LeawoodGardener wrote:
My soil ranges from good, black loam (the original soil - my house location used to be a meadow) to the worst mix of clay/rock you'll find (it is 'dreck' the construction crew used for fill when the creek behind my house was widened as part of the city's flood control plan) Four years ago they took out a swath about 6-12 feet wide along the creek, put in the stacked stone wall, and used clay with rock as fill. I'm slowly amending it, but every time I plant something I curse the construction crew and blame myself for not being more vigilant after dozens of truckloads of rich, black earth were hauled off.

When I plant my banana trees, I make a very large hole, line it with composted straw and horse manure (I pick it up at a local stable), put in my banana tree and fill the hole with more straw/manure mix. The bananas like the nitrogen-rich mix and the loose composition of the 'soil'. Each year I have more banana trees than I can plant in my yard, so I put them in pots filled with the manure mix to get them started and give them to friends.