The banana peels fertilizer works very well

If you haven't come here lately, you can probably notice I did quite some changes. Like I said back in the new year post, I have a lot of projects and ideas I want to try and share. I feel very motivated about continuing with the blog, it keeps growing more and more every day. You have given me a very nice response, so I will put more effort into continuing it. Thank you very much!

This is my new Internet tree

The first change I did was the layout. I think three columns will give me a better space for very needed internal links. I have a lot of projects on the way, and there is where they will live. I hope you don’t mind it takes a bit of space from the post, I tried to keep them the least intrusive. I also tried to keep the space to have big enough photos, because the photos always get many praises.

Other change, is the blog carnival icon on the upper left corner. That will be the entrance to the carnival introductory page, feel free to pay it a visit. All the carnivals, that were and will be, will be accessible from there.

One more change is the header. I am experimenting with a lot of tools and styles, and I plan on changing the header and the background accordingly to the season let me know which one is your favorite.

I also did a lot of little changes. Things like margin size or where some icons go. The menu bar, the search bar and others. I hope it looks better and more professional now.

The last new feature is the social media buttons Internet tree on the upper right corner. I feel specially proud of this one. I did the drawing almost from the scratch and I had to do a lot of learning to have the links and everything on the right place and working properly. Also, I end up doing a lot of little drawings that I won’t use, but I think others might find useful, so be on the lookout for a goodies page. I will put them all there.


Ok, now on to the gardening matters. Last post I got a couple questions about banana peels fertilizer. I had done a post about it back in November, but I didn't showed the results. Well, here they are. Back then, because I didn't had many peels, I had only put fertilizer on one of my flower pots, the one that needed it the most. So only one got the benefits and now I am seeing the differences.

I think is a fair comparison. Both planters have almost the same kind of flowers, they get the same amount of sun and of water and the soil where they are planted comes from the same bag. Also, I normally trim the dead buttons to keep them flowering, though lately I have not done it as much because I am waiting for seeds.

On with the comparison then. First planter A, I did not put any fertilizer on this planter. It bloomed beautifully back when it was new, but with the cold it slowly started to recede. Here is the photo of flower planter A.

These flowers need some banana fertilizer urgently

As you can see the pansies and the alyssum hardly have any flowers. The lemon marigold, even though is very hardy, is starting to get bald. And the stock is down to its lasts flowers. The only one that still seems strong is the Blue ballon scabiosa.

Now planter B, the one that got its dose of banana fertilizer. This one was starting to have less flowers back then, that’s why I decided on using the banana peels on it. Here is the photo of flower planter B.

This ones are blooming nicely because
they already got banana peels fertilizer

What a difference! The pansies are in full bloom, and with a lot of new buttons coming up. The stock has lasted much longer, and still have buttons. The cosmos, even tho is not as resistant as the mint marigold, still has a lot of its flowers. Also, the alyssum is much more grown and flowered.

That is the difference that a little of homemade banana fertilizer can make. Which teaches me that I should have putted some fertilizer in both planters back then. But in the end it is no problem, because, I recently got a new bunch of bananas and I am planning on making a lot of milkshakes out of them. I have to get them very green so they last long enough for me to finish them.

I can get a lot of banana fertilizer out of this one

Click here for my old post about making banana peel fertilizer for containers.


And remember, seven more days to the carnival!

Be ready with a post about what do you plan on doing at your garden this year, maybe about one particular plant you want to have, a renovation you will do, a special patch you will grow, a new gardening technique you will give a try, or any other project you have prepared for this new year.

Using banana peels as fertilizer for container plants

To ensure all the flowers in my garden will continue to bloom nicely I decided to add a little of fertilizer. But, because I did not wanted to spend much money on specialized fertilizer and also because I prefer to use more natural methods, I choose to go cheap and simple with some good home made plant food. Lucky for me I always enjoy having banana milkshake so I have a lot of banana peels available, great for what I need.

One banana shake fertilizer order coming up!

Many gardeners know the great benefits of using banana peels in the garden as a fertilizer. They are great for helping roses (I used it successfully with my little yellow rose before) and many other plants get more flowers. Bananas are rich in phosphorus and potassium, both of them important macro-nutrients for the plants. Potassium in particular is the responsible for the new formation of flower buds.

The most common method of using them is just cutting them in chunks and burying them around the fresh soil for the plants. However, for us container gardeners, it gets a bit more tricky. We cannot just stuck some peels in our containers because, in such a little space, there is the risk that the decomposition process of the peel would damage the roots of the plants.

Mix the blended peels and eggshell with soil and let it rest

So here is my little trick, since I am already having a banana milkshake, I also make a shake for the plants. All you need to do is toss the leftover peels into the blender, add a little of water ( I sometimes use the left over water from washing rice, it helps even more), and if you want to give it an extra punch, throw in a couple of leftover eggshells. Blend until smooth. When it is done you will end with a not so good looking shake, but the plants will love it. To help the plants assimilate it even better, you can mix it with some soil and let it rest a week.

After a week you get some nice potasium rich soil

I would recommend to be careful with the recipe. Remember, it is fertilizer. Judge well how much to feed to each plant. I did this wrong by mistake last time and I ended up having too many flowers on my peppers, so many that they only gave one single pepper for the whole season.

On I different topic, I have been having such a good response on the blog lately that I want to give something back. I am planning on organizing a blog carnival for the end of the month. Blog carnivals are great, they help beginner or unknown bloggers get discovered, and also help more established blogs get new ideas and inspiration.

I haven't decided on the topic though. It is between, posts showcasing the favorite plant of your garden in that month, or a roundabout of how everything is going on in your garden, sort of like my little monthly update.

Which one would you like to participate in? Any other topic you prefer?

Please let me know what do you think in the comments.

Have a great weekend!