Nuts and bolts of growing legumes

GARDEN OF LIFE: Paul Cook has been growing peanuts in Geraldton for about eight years.

We met Paul a couple of years ago and went back there on Easter Monday.

He lives in Askew Street with his wife and two children, Abby who is six and 14-year-old Hilton.

Hilton has autism and cerebral palsy, is confined to a wheelchair and cared for by his dad.

The garden is a place for them both to interact and for Paul and his family to find respite and enjoy the fruits of their labour. Paul told us Abby also interacts in the garden and is gaining great knowledge of how fruit and vegetables grow.

“I started off with pack of 30 peanut seeds from Diggers eight years ago, they grew very well and I just kept back seed each year.” Paul said.

“You can go to the health food shop, buy the peanuts and pop them into the ground thumb-deep like you would with garlic.

“They like a sandy soil but if the soil is too full of compost or humus you will get a lot of rot on the peanut itself and white scale as well.

“Although you can grow them all year round, I like to grow them in summer as a cover crop. They are actually a legume, not a tree type of nut. They fix nitrogen from the air, back into your soil.” Paul said peanuts loved the summer sun.

“As long as they are watered they are fine,” he said.

“Plant about 300mm apart and once they reach that height they start to flower.

“A little yellow flower appears and off that is the actual seed pod that bends down and buries itself in the ground; the nut will develop under the ground.

“Between 12 and 16 weeks they will grow into a good size.

“You can pull the peanuts up out of the ground and they will continue to grow for about three weeks if they are still attached to the root ball.

“Then get an old sheet, shake the peanuts off the root ball onto the sheet. Afterwards you can remove any that have signs of mould.”

Paul keeps the peanuts in a dry environment and suggested putting some in a low oven for 15 minutes to roast; you will find them a completely different taste.

“As there are no pesticides or poisons in this garden the great thing about this type of fruit is that you know what you are eating,” he said.

“All fruit from the ground is like a sponge and will suck up whatever is in the soil.”

Paul’s peanuts are called virginia peanuts as a lot of these were commercially grown in Virginia. They originated in South America and are called ground nuts there.

“At Christmas time we give away jars of them, Abby loves pulling them up.” he said. “They didn’t cost us anything and we say, here, have a jar of organically grown peanuts.

“Over east they grow a tiny peanut called a Pinto and the vines are used as living mulch in orchards. It doesn’t grow too high and gives nitrogen back into the soil.”

Paul has a great variety of fruit trees and in one of his eight garden beds; dwarf broccoli are already planted, to beat the spring bugs. Paul rotates the beds every three months to maximise the soil elements and help control disease and pests. His portable chook pen is located over different beds to clean up grubs.

Recently we talked about plants needing NPK fertiliser (nitrogen, phosphate and potassium). Paul showed us his organic alternative to the chemically created NPK.

He found this recipe in an organic magazine and it consists of four parts of canola meal, one half part of dolomite lime, one quarter part garden lime, one-quarter part gypsum. Also one-part guano or rock phosphate or blood and bone and one-part kelp meal. It is a slower release than commercial NPK. Most of the ingredients can be bought through farm stockists.

In reflection, on Easter Monday we are reminded that Jesus was said to have gone to the garden of Gethsemane to pray the night before his crucifixion. In searching for peace or pleasure, a garden can give more than any other place.

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