Monkey nuts!

28 December 2009

One of my Christmas presents this year was a monkey nut growing kit. Monkey nuts being, I was quite disappointed to find out, just another name for peanuts. Tip to gift-givers: next Christmas, I’d like the opportunity to grow myself a cute monkey.

The kit consisted of just three parts: a disc of eco peat made from coconut shell, a terracotta pot and seeds. The peat disc needed to soak for 2 hours in 150ml water, so I used my cup measure. A cup measure? What is a cup measure doing in your British kitchen? I KNOW. I’m just that cosmopolitan. My scale even does both ounces and grams.

I plonked the disc into the water, expecting to have to swill it about a bit and to have time to arse about getting a nice shot of it gradually doing whatever it was about to do. But apparently the peat didn’t know about the requirements of a blogger and thus exploded into a pile of wet peat in just a few seconds while I clicked away and hoped for the best.

By the way, anyone thinking they might comment on how extraordinary it is that our countertop changes colour so quickly can instead either buy me this, or go back in time and remind me beforehand that I have a fancy flash I could use. Or they can just be quiet and go and photograph something very dark against something light.

I carried on with the planting the next morning, as I’d started this Christmas evening and clearly got distracted by festivities. No problem though, as the peat was still very moist. I filled the pot most of the way with the peat and then opened up the seed packet.

Perhaps someone can explain to me why I was surprised to see two peanuts in the packet? What exactly was I expecting? (Intentions for 2010 so far: 1. get light unit 2. be clever)

So I covered the nuts and now we wait.

We wait to see if one morning I’ll come downstairs to find that a squirrel found the seed packet in the bin and broke in and stole my peanuts while I slept.

Posted in: garden, photos

Comments

4 Responses to “Monkey nuts!”

Lindy
28th December 2009 @ 6:42 pm

peanuts? really? Somehow I would have thought it was something more seed like!

[Reply]
cartoongoddess
29th December 2009 @ 2:33 am

Years ago, when I traveled to Ireland, I kept seeing vendors with signs that said “monkey nuts”. My first thought was, good lord what is THAT?! Then I found out. Shortly after, I found out what sultanas are.

I grew peanuts unintentionally in my compost pile one summer. Good luck with them.

[Reply]
Beth
30th December 2009 @ 12:09 pm

If anyone can grow those, you can, if your past gardening posts are any indication!

Oh, BTW, “monkey nuts” just sounds plain naughty. ;^)

[Reply]
Getting a head start on festive preparations : dreamdust
6th March 2011 @ 1:14 pm

[...] of experiments in the green-fingered part of my life. The pansy in a tin soon carked it, as did the monkey nuts, but why should we learn from our mistakes? It’s too cold to go outside and grow proper [...]