A banana circle is an excellent way to grow banana, papaya, pigeon pea, tomato, bean, sweet potato, malanga, and other root crops while using up excess water and organic matter.
The design is very simple - basically digging a hole for feed/water and surrounded by many plants.
Our kitchen scraps have gone to a banana circle as shown below, on a gentle slope in the front yard to capture and store rainwater, mineral nutrients, and organic matter. It is surrounded by productive banana, papaya, pigeon pea, sweet potato, mahogany splendor hibiscus, and cassava.
It can make use of excess run-off rainwater, or if water is scarce, greywater can be directed to the circle so water is reused. I can even put a shower head there to reuse the water. After plants have grown to provide privacy, taking a shower there would give a true feeling of tropical jungle.
Do you see I use an earth berm made from dugout soil on both sides of the banana circle to direct rainwater from a slope to the hole?
The first 4 photos below captured what it looked like 3 months ago. Plants were struggling a little and not growing much.
Zooming in a little to the hole ...
Zooming in a little more ...
Zooming in even more ...
Zooming out ... this last photo is from this morning. Banana plants have increased their size multiple times.
