Okay, so we live in a duplex, which means that I live in one house and there is a house attached to me. The houses inside are exactly the same and basically our yards are the same as well. You get the idea.
So, the new people next door have done some amazing work inside their home and now that it's nice outside they are doing work outside of their home as well. This has prompted my DH to do some outside work as well. Right now, everyone is working on the front of the house, so the front lawn and the front gardens, digging out old hedges, etc.
I wanted to see what kinds of flowers the woman next door had planted and I had just been out admiring what DH had done with our front garden - instead of using red brick like they did next door, he used some really nice old rocks, big ones, just wonderful looking for the border of our garden. I was afraid that he was going to do the red brick thing like next door.
So, I'm looking down and I can't really see what she's planted flower wise but what I can see is that their whole garden is covered with some kind of dark nut shell. It's obviously been shredded to use for ground covering. You know the kind of red wood chips you can buy to put in your garden that look really nice? Well, this is what this stuff looks like except it's not. It's a bloody nut covering.
I called DH over and of course because Jesse isn't TNA (yet, touch wood - remember the 30% chance of becoming TNA) he thinks no big deal and of course I'm Psycho Mom from He** again.
I've just never seen this before. Never. I have seen the wood chips people use but never this nut shell covering. It does look like it has been shredded up quite a bit and I couldn't even tell you if the actual nut is in there too, shredded with the shell of the nut.
They're a youngish couple around 30 that I will describe as modern day hippies (whatever that means, but I know what it means to me). So, they're probably doing some kind of organic thing. It does look very nice.
But I'm out there and I'm like WTF is this?
Has anyone else ever seen this type of covering? And if they have this type of covering in whatever type of nut this is, does that mean that there are peanut ground coverings out there as well and I just haven't run across them yet?
I'm going to re-raise ajas_folks' thread on Unusual or Unexpected Sources of Peanuts and give it a good read later.
I did ask DH if he could ask them what type of nut it was.
We also have what I think is a light walnut tree growing in their backyard which drops the nuts all over our backyard and I have been okay with that simply because Jesse isn't TNA. But still. The woman who lived there before (for 11 years) said they were butternuts but I've never heard of them before, they look like walnuts, but not dark ones.
I have had friends tell me about having to clean up all the peanuts in the yards that other neighbours have been feeding the squirrels all winter and I've been horrified and thankful that no one does that around here.
But what the heck is that in the front garden next door? Has anyone else ever seen it?
I'm stunned and of course, DH thinks I'm insane.
Oh, and one last note. As soon as I came in, I'm just in now, not recovered, I thought, okay, at least I can post this on PA.com and someone will have something to post. Thank heaven for PA.com. I know it's not peanut shells and I know Jesse's not allergic to tree nuts but I'm still quite shaken.
Many thanks and best wishes! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]
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Cindy -
Could it be cocoa shells? My dad used to use them way back when...really just chaff from cocoa beans, I think -- kind of a pleasant odor, came in big burlap sacks.
They don't look like the chunky wood "chips" -- more like great big popcorn hulls.
Never a dull moment with all this, eh?
Hang in there...
-Sue