Black Walnut

[G Williams]

We have Walnut trees across the road. Squirrels are getting the nuts before we can. New trees popping up every where even on our side of the road. The only thing keeping our wiring safe from squirrels in the out-buildings are the cats.

[ross]

My bbq ( in season ) keeps me safe from squirrels eating wires etc .Dog chases um rest of time . Yummmlol

[kenya]

My sister has a huge walnut tree in her back yard, beautiful tree. Grass grows no problem under it, the only problem with it is when the nuts start to fall you don't want to be under it or you'd have a heck of a lump on your noodle. The squirrels usually take off with the nuts but they plant them everywhere, always pulling out walnut trees in in the flower beds

[Skinny rooster]

@LongCrow I appreciate your ingenuity! But I'm not a big enough fan of the bitter taste of walnuts to bother to process them and Im not sure I'm up for "Kijiji people" lol. The fruit needs to be removed prior to each lawn cutting session or those things become projectiles!
My biggest issue is what I have read about the trees toxins:

THE “DARK SIDE” OF BLACK WALNUTS
Unfortunately, the black walnut’s roots, which may extend 50 feet or more from the trunk, do exude a natural herbicide known as juglone that prevents many plants from growing within their reach.
Tomatoes, potatoes, apples, pears, berries, and some landscape plants such as rhododendrons, azaleas, and lilacs may be killed or stunted if grown in close proximity to black walnut roots.

Between well location, septic location, chicken coop and pen and a back corner included as "environmentally protected" land I'm limited as to where I can locate my garden and things like tomatoes and peppers are supposed to be quite problem to this toxin.

However the sentimentality of a tree descended from my grandparents farm gets me every time lol. Same reason I can't cut down the oak tree that's really planted too close to the house ( by my dad who's now gone). Sigh.
OC they aren't large trees. Maybe 15 years old but they are pretty slow growing. If I was a stranger viewing it I'm sure I would easily take the one out in front yard because it's just too crowded.

Yup, you said you wanted less nuts to deal with not more, so skip the kijiji people!

[Bayvistafarm]

I have many walnuts on the property. Huge ones. They do not kill everything. Hosta grows quite nicely around the trunk. Also.. I have many other plants growing nearby, ferns/iris.... and have planted annuals... they are all thriving!

[WLLady]

Same here with my black walnut...the grass does quite well....so do the weeds ;-P

[Happy]

I still haven't decided what to do so I think my decision is to take the one down that is in an over crowded area and leave the other one for now. I can always change my mind and take it down but I can't put it back once cut. Maybe I just need a big mulched hosta garden under it and then I don't need to worry about picking nuts up to mow the lawn.

[hayladee]

got a lil story about the acidity in the green shell of black walnuts. Hubby was laying under the haybine years ago working on unclogging the rollers ...took him the better part of an hour and much colorful language...anyway, later that evening when he was in the shower he called me in to see what was burning his butt....he had a spot the size of a small orange that was angry red and he said it burned like fire...and didn't know what it was from. The mystery was solved when I did the wash that week....he had a greenish black circle on the pocket of his jeans the same size and it still smelled "bitter" like green walnut, ditto with his undershorts,...must have been laying on a mushy green walnut shell while unclogging the haybine.

[Happy]

got a lil story about the acidity in the green shell of black walnuts. Hubby was laying under the haybine years ago working on unclogging the rollers ...took him the better part of an hour and much colorful language...anyway, later that evening when he was in the shower he called me in to see what was burning his butt....he had a spot the size of a small orange that was angry red and he said it burned like fire...and didn't know what it was from. The mystery was solved when I did the wash that week....he had a greenish black circle on the pocket of his jeans the same size and it still smelled "bitter" like green walnut, ditto with his undershorts,...must have been laying on a mushy green walnut shell while unclogging the haybine.

Ouch! I didn't know they could do that kind of damage! I bet he checks around first now before plunking down.

[Skinny rooster]

You know.... there are just so many jokes we could make about that story, better to just let it go.

I didn't know we could grow walnuts in Canada. We used to have butternuts growing all over the farm but sadly like most trees these days, some stupid disease wiped them all out.