The first banana circle that I’ve completed was truly a back-breaking work as I had to dig it up myself. That took me almost 2 months. I built this second banana circle in about 1.5 months. I actually pushed myself to rush this through as the extended function it serves is of great importance.
The shack in which I stay for the night has a small outhouse. The WC in it use to have an outgoing pipe to a concrete sewer tank underground about 30 feet away. I’ve disconnected this outgoing pipe (the WC is no longer in used) so that it could now be redirected to a banana circle. The banana circle would be located between the outhouse and the old sewer tank.
This outhouse where the WC is found is also used currently as a bathing stall. Hence, the grey water from showering would be channeled by pipes from the outhouse directly into the banana circle. In the future, I may extend the interception point by running the pipe further into the former sewer tank, inside which I’m considering to plant papayas or bananas. When that happens, grey water would be channeled into both locations.
The size of this banana circle is almost as big as the first one I did. The topsoil was really soft and as you can see here, the distinction between good (blackish) top soil and the subsoil is obvious. The subsoil is pretty hard but overall, it was quite easy to dig through. I started digging on the very first day it rained so that the ground is softer.
In fact, I took two separate occasions of each, half day (about 4 hours) to complete the circle. So it took me about 8 hours or a day’s work to complete the circle in what effectively is over a 6-week period. Procrastination.
I’ve kept a vertical mound at the centre to support the pipe. The depth from the deepest end to the top of the mound is almost 1.8 metres. Once completed, I threw in a variety of organic matter, starting with woody branches and twigs at the base. As I work my way up, I vary the size and type of materials.
In the end, I realised I may have made the hole too deep as I do not have enough materials to fill it to the brim. I’ve yet to fill it up with more materials from the surrounding areas, a task which takes time. For this to work well, it’s best to fill it up to the mound. The soaked central area with excess water will seep out to all mounds, thus providing water and nutrient to anything that’s planted on the mound.
The strategic location of this banana circle holds great importance. This circle is at the corner of the farm next to two neighbours. The “pit composting” approach seen here captures and stores both water and nutrient before they escape beyond the farm. This method is in accordance to one of the permaculture principles that calls for the capture and storage of energy throughout the land. Water, organic matter and nutrients are all different forms of energy. This simple indentation in the ground slows water movement through the land, allowing it to seep down slowly for subsequent slow release to needy plants.
Not only does the banana circle play a logical and functional role to clean and reuse grey water from the shower; it offers me a “feeding station” for whatever green and brown refuse I wish to stow away. I have plans in the future to tear down the temporary shack/outhouse and in its place, build a two-storey chicken coop and goat shed. This structure would be adjacent to a nursery. This design capitalises on the manure generation from the animal system which produces input for composting mix to be used in the nursery. The banana circle would by then, accept manure input, the results of which would increase growth of little edibles for the chickens to forage.
Next up, I would be planting papayas and sweet potatoes on the mound. As I may not be using all the mound’s surface area instantly at one go, I would need to first cover up unused space for now with mulching.
