A number of years ago, a listener sent a note to Charlie, letting him know she was having some success growing peanuts in Vermont. The listener even sent along some seeds so he could plant the crop in his backyard garden.
After some experimentation — and failures, thanks to hungry mice — Charlie came up with a system that does, indeed, work for growing peanuts in our region.
This warm-season legume, native to South America, was a food staple for Incan and Aztec civilizations, who ground it into a paste.
Peanuts eventually made their way around the globe, due to colonization and trading routes. And now many places worldwide grow peanuts to use in a variety of culinary dishes, from savory and spicy to sweet.
Peanuts need four to five months of hot, sunny weather to mature — not exactly how one might describe Vermont's summertime weather! But if you can create that environment in a microclimate, you can grow a small crop that would be harvestable by fall.
While growing, the peanut plant itself looks like a clover plant. It grows very slowly at first, but then eventually starts to flower, with small yellow blossoms.
Those small flowers get pollinated and turn into what is called a peg, which is like a stem that tunnels down into the soil.
At the end of each peanut plant peg is where the peanuts form. The more pegs you have, the more peanuts you get.
Charlie’s first attempt to grow them outdoors didn’t last long, because our climate didn’t stay warm long enough.
When he moved the crop to grow in an unheated greenhouse in the ground, they did very well. And that’s when the hungry mice showed up and absconded with the whole crop!
These trial-and-error growing scenarios allowed for him to create the ideal microclimate, suitable for growing warm-season legumes and avoiding nibbly critters.
For the last couple years, he has grown the peanut plants in an elevated raised bed — which keeps them out of reach of mice — in a mixture of potting soil and compost inside the unheated greenhouse.
If you've got a similar setup, Tennessee Red Valencia is a short-season peanut to try. Plant the peanut crop in an elevated raised bed in June and you'll have a peanut harvest in October.
Once harvested, let the peanuts cure or dry for two to three weeks (in a mouse-proof area), then roast and enjoy.
Can leggy brassicas be saved?
Q: I started growing kale, Brussels sprouts and broccoli from seed, and all came up really quickly and got leggy. I have a container garden, so I repotted them, buried part of the leggy stem, and started putting them outside during the day to harden them. I was hoping it would help, but nothing has changed. Anything I can do at this point, or should I just restart? - Alex, via email
A: Even though they are all in the brassica family, each plant needs a bit of a different approach.
You can restart the kale now, and you can even plant it a number of times throughout the growing season for more harvests.
The broccoli, though leggy, will still grow and produce a head. If you want to replant broccoli, time it as a fall crop later in the season. And because the Brussels sprouts take much longer to grow and mature, let them continue as-is.
Right now, if the Brussels sprouts are growing elongated and thin, that shouldn't be an issue. The crop might grow a bit less-than-perfect looking, but it should still grow well and produce heads.
Is my lilac too pooped to form new buds?
Q: I thought I was looking at big buds forming on my lilacs, but as it turns out they are the seed pods from last year’s flowers. After a closer inspection, I did see a few new flower buds forming, but not that many. Did last year’s big blooms tucker them out for this year? - Patricia, via email
A: Species of lilacs that had a lot of blooms one year and then set seed may not set as many flower buds the following year. The setting of the seed takes a lot of energy away from the plants.
This year, after a few flowers bloom, prune back those flowers. That should help send all the energy back into forming new flower buds and not into setting seeds.
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