It’s Peanut Sunday here at LRF Head Quarters in Hawthorn East! Earlier in the year we planted out an experimental crop of peanuts and today we harvested them. As you can see, our crop was a huge success. It was so exciting to uproot the withering plants and finding masses of peanuts dangling beneath the plant. Peanuts flower with a little yellow flower, once pollinated the flower sends a spike downwards under the ground. The peanut develops on the end of this spike. We found that peanut kernels are a lot softer and creamier than the typical roasted ones you’d buy in the shops.
We can report that growing peanuts is very easy and as a nitrogen fixing legume has the added bonus of conditioning the soil while they grow. Following the success of this crop, we’ll be planting out a much bigger one next spring. For those of you interested in having a go yourselves, we’ll post a guide on how to grow peanuts closer to planting time to help you. 
Hi I am impressed with your peanut report. How are you going to use them? Do you need to roast them or dry them ? Are they an all around the year crop? Do they taste good?
Hi Edye, we were thinking of either turning them into peanut butter or else drying them out and sharing them with a few beers. You could roast them, but they’re deliciously smooth and creamy as is. In Melbourne and other temperate areas of Australia they’re ideally planted in spring and grown over the summer. We got ours in a bit late this year but they have still done well. We’ll be adding a post on how to grow Peanuts in spring when it’s time to be planting them.
Just planted the garden yesterday, how much space do the plants take up? I am interested in the guide, looks like fun.
Hi Chris, We planted ours in a small planter box (about 1m x 1m in size) and had about 15 plants growing in that. I think you could probably squeeze a few more in by planting them closer together (possibly as close as 10cm apart). Most plants had about 10 peanuts on them so they’re not the most productive, but they were very interesting to grow. What have you just planted in your garden?