Banana tree

On Saturday Nov 28th I bought a banana tree, a Cavendish of the William's Hybrid variety.  Let's hope this one will have plenty of suckers to give a tropical feel to this part of the garden.  At the Bulleen's Art and Garden Centre where I purchased the banana tree there were mango trees for sale.  Perhaps this part of the world will not remain temperate for long.  I don't know if I will get edible size bananas from my tree.  So long as it produces enough leaves for making lepat and kuih koci I'll be happy.
At the nursery I found the hibiscus in the exact shade of red I was looking for and that has been planted to be in view from the lounge.  At the moment there is not much to be seen of the hibiscus, with the azaleas and iris hiding it from view.  Give it another year I hope it will double in size.  Maybe I'm being too hopeful, but the kind of weather we have been having, hot and wet, would surely send the plants shooting up. 
I am not complaining about the rain we have been getting, and so glad my 1000 litre water tank is finally up.  I am mulching, with pea straw and in some beds, with sugar cane mulch, to keep the moisture in.  I'm trying to find some time to make a shade cloth cover for the garden boxes.  I'm sure we will be getting the 40 degrees + temperature by February, if not earlier and I don't want to be struggling with tarpaulin and old sheets as I did last February. 
I am looking for a suitable spot in the garden for my water garden.  A few months ago I bought three sprouting water chestnuts from the Sprout Market.  I planted them in a pot and placed the pot in a bucket, with water coming up to the top and to my surprise all three are doing well.  I am looking for a largish basin and I have to move the chestnuts to bigger pots. They are looking so healthy and I hate to move them.  I will have to ponder over that one while I look for a suitable container.  I may even grow some kangkong.

The outside garden patch is looking good, with the sunflowers shooting up in the last week and the butternut pumpkin sending shoots in all directions.  I have harvested the broadbeans but I did not pull out all the plants.  Two of them have strong shoots appearing from the base so I am hoping I'll get more broad beans soon.  The poppies have finished flowering and the nasturtium can do with a bit of tidying up.  I'm hoping the seeds will send up new plants so I can get rid of the scraggly, old ones.  They were looking magnificent a month ago but the time has come to prune back and make room for new growth.