KITCHEN GARDENS With Norina Jane Whitpro

Here in the tropics, we are privileged to have a variety of fruit that makes us the envy of southerners. Passion fruit and dragon fruit (on my favourite list) can be grown in small gardens. Lychee trees which are fruiting their hearts out at the moment, can be grown in a normal house block, along with lemons, grapefruit, avocados and limes.  

Mango season is also upon us but remember these trees can grow very big and they are the most common fruit trees that our Arborists are called in to prune back heavily.

Also the coconut palm which, when planted where the family play, can result in a serious knock on the head!

Finger limes are a very popular Australian Native and very sought after.  

I am growing three varieties for the first time now – I’ll let you know how I go if you’re still reading this article in three years!

This issue, though, let’s talk bananas.

Who doesn’t like a banana smoothie for breakfast or banana cake shared with a friend?

Bananas are a quick snack for the kids, can be frozen for use at a later date, cut up and put in a fruit salad or put on top of your favourite breakfast cereal. They can even be dehydrated as a healthy sweet snack.

You’ll need space to grow bananas - they are a very fast-growing plant (technically not a tree), reaching up to 16ft within nine months!  

This also means they are hungry plants, so feeding and mulching are essential.

There is, however, a price to pay for quick growth and after they fruit, banana plant die.  

But don’t despair, they do leave behind pups (known as suckers) which will be your never-ending cycle of banana plant growth.

Side note, if you want to grow a banana plant getting these pups from a friend’s tree is the best way to get started as they will need to remove some of those pups anyway.

While your pup is a pup, it will not require a lot of water but when you have big leaves stretching to the sky, water becomes more critical as they lose water through evaporation from their rather large and impressive foliage (so keep the soil wet but never sodden).

Also, don’t plant them near a fence and be aware that they are prone to wind damage and they will fall over in a cyclone, so not too close to structures either.

Your bananas will all ripen at once and you will have more bananas than you can possibly eat yourself.  So, as well as sharing your bounty, you can dehydrate them, freeze them to add to smoothies, bake cakes, banana bread or make banana ice cream!

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Did you know:  

If you are using bananas to bake with, they are best over ripened, brown or even black!  So don’t throw your gross looking bananas out, make banana bread!

You can eat banana flowers too - cut them finely and add them to your salad.

Banana plants are the world’s largest herb!

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Norina’s Recipe

Best Ever Banana Nut Smoothies

You will need:

¼ cup Macadamia Nuts

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1 large frozen banana

1 cup of coconut milk

1 tablespoon Honey

Directions:

Put all ingredients and blend until smooth

Food fact:  Macadamias are an excellent source of minerals such as magnesium, zinc and calcium

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Banana plants can grow up to 16 foot in nine months

Try Norina’s delicious banana nut smoothie

Finger Limes grow well in the Whitsunday climate

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