These are our banana trees. Several years ago a friend gave me two dead baby banana trees. Being a frugal, plant loving, optimist I graciously took them and gave them a chance. My friend's instructions included laying them in the driveway for two weeks to let them dry out. Though we laughed the entire time, Scott and I followed the instructions and planted them. While the original two plants died, four babies emerged from the ground soon after. As you can see, the bananas have worked out quite well. We started with two brittle brown stalks and now have about 15 lush banana trees.

As you can see, baby banana trees grow best when you keep a light saber near by. Each banana tree lives about a year, produces a hand of bananas, then dies. Before dying, the mother plant produces two babies to replace her. Bananas are very generous plants.

At about nine months, the banana plant drops a stalk with a strange flower at the end. Slowly the petals open up and fall off. Little buds appear that eventually turn into the actual bananas.

Soon a recognizable hand of bananas appears. The boys always get so excited at this point.

After a few weeks on the tree, the bananas are finally ready to pick. I climb up on top of the hose reel with my biggest chef knife, balance and start hacking away at the cord. A hand of green bananas is incredibly heavy, so this is always tricky.

Green bananas have to ripen, so they need to hang for awhile outside. I like to hang them on the swing set. The boys spend a lot of time making their GI Joes ride on the bananas while they twirl them around. Slowly the bananas ripen one at a time then it's time to eat. Lots of smoothies and banana bread.

We love our banana trees. Things recently came full circle when I gave a friend of mine a dried out banana tree that was growing on the wrong side of my fence. She laughed at me when I told her the first step in transplanting it was to kill it by laying it in the driveway for a week. The banana trees are selfless. Their only mission is to serve us, produce a wonderful food, provide shade for the boys to play in, offer a relaxing sound when the wind blows through their tattered leaves, provide a wholesome source of family entertainment and a beautiful sight at sunset.