Talk Story with an Advertiser: Big Island Perennial Peanut
Finally, a sustainable groundcover that offers beauty and ease at one-third the price of grass!
Big Island Perennial Peanut (BIPP) offers Arachis pintoi, also known as Golden Glory, a regenerative and drought tolerant groundcover in the legume family that is nitrogen-fixing, builds up soil nutrients as it self-mulches, and never needs to be mowed! Regardless if a homeowner is in the city or a large farm with grazing animals, perennial peanut nurtures all plantings in a symbiotic relationship.
The roots of BIPP began when Michelle McClellan met Raven Garlock and Isaac Becker-Gonzalez in August 2020, during a visit at Garden of Eden homestead, where Michelle and Milo Bickmore both live and farm. As is so common on Hawai‘i Island, Garden of Eden in Kapoho had mostly ‘a‘ā lava and extremely limited soil. The drought-stressed fruit trees and ornamentals, and the various grasses that made up a groundcover, looked brown, dead, and offered minimal protection and nutrients to plants.
When Michelle was introduced to the perennial peanut at a neighbor’s home, she noticed the compatibility of the lush, dense mat around the fruit trees—the trees were thriving and the beautiful deep-green clover groundcover with yellow flowers was exceptionally lovely! She soon learned the many beneficial qualities of the so-called peanut plant, and was blessed when another neighbor gifted them with a bag of stolons (cuttings with small roots that are ready to plant).
Enter Raven and Isaac. Michelle recalls, “They enjoyed nurturing the ‘āina and began assisting me with planting perennial peanut at our homestead. Within a few months, we became a team with a shared goal to replace the weedy-grass with a sustainable groundcover. To support our venture, Raven posted Big Island Perennial Peanut signs throughout our area and our newest team member, Ridge, now takes our plants to farmers’ markets.”
Michelle shares, “Customers are excited by the peanut because it never needs to be mowed, fertilized, re-seeded, or weeded after establishment. We also share our propagation method so our clients can easily replicate what we have accomplished once their peanut is established. The plants feature yellow flowers that flourish from February to October. People love to walk barefoot or play on it with their pets. Homesteads with grazing animals such as chickens, ducks, sheep, cattle, and even horses appreciate the peanut as forage or fodder crop, which mitigates financial costs even more.”
Perennial Peanut comes in one-gallon pots with an established root-ball, in addition to stolons. Readers are invited to visit Garden of Eden Homestead to see the abundance of companion plantings with fruit trees, bananas, pineapples, ornamentals, and ancient mango trees.
Big Island Perennial Peanut, Kapoho
808.345.9705
Facebook.com/bigislandperennialpeanut
