I have about 25 banana trees on my property, which I overwinter by mulching with leaves around the base. In the spring I pull off the dead material, and dispose of them. But because of the size of the trees it's a time-consuming activity, not to mention it's unwieldy to handle the large mass of leaves. I haul them to our compost center, but I would love if there was a way I could keep them on my property. In the past I've attempted to divide the work in half by removing the top part of the trees in the fall and the remainder in the spring. But it seems like it's more work that way.

Is there a more efficient way to do this?

Also, have any of you attempted to add the banana leaves to a compost pile? And if so how do you chop up the leaves to add to your compost pile?