I made a yummy yogurt-granola parfait this morning with bananas and blueberries. On my way to toss the banana peel into the compost bin, I stopped short in the rose garden. One, because the roses are blooming and budding like crazy:
And two, because the roses could use that banana peel more than the compost. Bananas are good for roses for the same reason they’re good for people – their high potassium content. Potassium is a common ingredient in fertilizers because it encourages hefty bloom and fruit production. There are several ways to feed your roses bananas, but you know me, I always pick the easiest. I simply shove my fingers into the soil a few inches from the base of the rose and then shove the banana peel down. Cover it up, water it in, and done. But that’s me. Other people will tell you to bake the banana peels so they’ll break down faster or to use the whole banana and make it into a mash. This seems like extra work, but that’s coming from a Floridian. The Florida sun is hotter and more effective than any oven on Earth. The heat literally melts everything we bury. We have our bin, but that’s more for yard waste. Most of our kitchen scraps go underground. We use one square at a time and no matter how much we bury, we never dig anything up. It’s as unbelievable as a magician making his assistant disappear. I want to know where the trap door is.
This rose’s name is Strike it Rich; it’s a Grandiflora rose and the star of the garden – extremely disease-resistant.