Browning Bananas: Unexpected Garden Solutions
Reutilize Matured Bananas in Your Garden: Innovative Ideas for Banana Peels
Got a bunch of overripe bananas? Before you're tempted to bake another loaf of bread, take a beat and consider these smart, unconventional garden uses that are easier on your waistline yet do wonders for your plants.
In this thriving age of TikTok DIY gardening tips and tricks, weeds through the internet's chaff to present practical methods for reusing your brown bananas that work like a charm.
Here's How You Can Use Overripe Bananas in Your Garden:
1. Feed the Pollinators
Who needs banana bread when pollinators are craving it? Butterflies and bees love brown bananas! You can place sliced bananas or medallions into a dish in your pollinator garden for these humble helpers to indulge in. Alternatively, place a banana directly onto a butterfly feeder or opt for a banana hanger designed specifically for butterflies, available on Amazon, for an even easier feast. These sugary treats serve as an additional energy source for your hardworking pollinators when flowers are scarce. Make it an all-inclusive feast by also providing a watering station nearby, such as these popular Bee Cups sold on our platform.
To keep ants at bay from your generous offering, simply add a splash of water around the bananas in the dish. Ants abhor water and you can avoid their unwanted presence.
2. Turn Old Peels into Plant Food
If you've heard about the TikTok plant hack of using banana peels for homemade fertilizer, you're not alone. Our garden experts advocate for it, with our resident scientist-turned-garden writer, Mary Ellen, using banana peels in her trustworthy homemade orchid fertilizer recipe. These peels have been found to promote more blooms on orchid plants.
Brown banana peels can also be utilized in a natural black spot treatment for roses, though our experts are skeptical of this claim. They do, however, suggest planting the peels directly around rose bushes to add a boost of nutrients as they break down. Furthermore, dried and powdered banana peels serve as an excellent DIY succulent fertilizer and pest repellent. Just sprinkle this homemade concoction around your plants or mix it with water to create a nutrient-rich plant food that helps deter pests.
3. Add Bananas to Your Compost Bin
Instead of tossing out your past-their-prime produce, compost bananas instead! Bananas decompose quickly in compost piles, enriching your compost with valuable nutrients that your plants will love. By composting, you'll keep organic waste out of landfills, helping to reduce methane emissions and the pollution of waterways. Consider using an electric composter, like the compact Reencle composter available in our shop, to simplify your composting at home.
Remember to remove any stickers before adding bananas to your compost, and cover them with a layer of "brown" materials. The bin or pile should be about equal parts green (nitrogen-rich materials like bananas) and brown (carbon-rich materials like dried leaves) for optimal composting results.
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By Laura Walters
Laura Walters joined our platform in 2021 with a BFA in Electronic Media from the University of Cincinnati, a certificate in Writing for Television from UCLA, and a background in documentary filmmaking and local news. With a passion for providing fellow gardeners with the knowledge they need, Laura combines her expertise with her love for entertaining content to make gardening a fun and enlightening experience. A dedicated gardener hailing from Southwest Ohio, Laura spends her summers on a lake in Northern Michigan, nurturing a perennial garden at home while dreaming of the day she can add to her rustic, although overcrowded, vegetable patch north of the border. Come along on this green journey as she shares her gardening tips and adventures!
- Adopting composting at home as part of a home-and-garden lifestyle can help enrich soil and reduce waste, as bananas can be added to compost bins to create nutrient-rich plant food.
- Incorporating gardening approaches, such as creating a pollinator-friendly garden with brown bananas, can be beneficial additions to one's lifestyle, promoting biodiversity and attracting pollinators like bees and butterflies.
