OK, so after some brief research, it looks like our soil just needs building back up and we shouldn't have to worry about there being any chemicals left in the earth from the last people who lived here (they used ROUNDUP).
*relieved forehead swipe*
That means, just a lot of hard work on the soil next year. Plenty of compost, as planned. But no worries about toxins seeping into our food-plants or killing the few we'll be planting to be friends of our food plants (but won't eat).
I bought some green beans seeds yesterday, and now I'm trying to grow my dwarf bananas from seed.
I soaked them for twenty four hours in warm water already and now they're in a nice large pot.
They need warm and constant temperatures, so I told Mom not to be turning the thermostat up and down too much now that we're in frost territory.
Unless I was sold bad seeds that won't grow, hopefully this'll work just fine.
This means I just need to monitor how moist the soil is carefully from day to day.
And as far as I can tell, if I'm successful in getting them to grow...once they're older they should be able to produce bananas since they were bred to be able to produce fruit indoors as a houseplant.
Next issue I gotta tackle, is if they need to sleep for the winter! (I don't think so, as they're tropical and normally always have warm temperatures...and these were specifically bred to be houseplants, so...more research needed!)
Other stuff I'll probably have to think about should they grow:
My bananas will someday have babies. Called "pups" which'll need to be kept at low levels in order for it to flower and fruit. -- Plant babies! Yay!!!
This also means I may someday have too many bananas to handle and should probably try to sell them in the warm months. Give them away to people who want them, if I can't sell them. Bigger pots. I planted all five in a decently sized pot because I didn't know how likely it was that they'd all grow and I planned to transplant them once they got to be a good size and risk crowding eachother. I will need more big pots. Five bananas at a time should probably be my max, considering that bananas are not the only things that will be living in the lovely sunlight of the dining room.
I must make sure I never forget to water them. Because they come from the tropics, they need plenty of water. They might not be very forgiving if I let them become too dry.
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