Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) 2008

Many years ago my wife Beth misinterpreted my desires and chopped down a Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) tree to improve the view of the mountains to the west.  I had been nurturing that naturally occurring Black Walnut in the hopes that someday my children’s children would able to make beautiful walnut furniture (or some such use) and that we would in the meantime harvest black walnuts every year.  Well as it turns out, despite that blip to domestic harmony, the walnut grew back from the stump and became a very large and distinctive part of the landscape.  Birds used it as a stop off point when they were flying in from points west and heading for our mulberries and cherries.  I put a bluebird box on it and tree swallows promptly took up residence every year.  Since we could easily see the tree from the porch it was a good spot to use my binoculars.  Walnuts get their leaves last and lose them first so that they have that advantage for spotting birds too.  I tried harvesting the walnuts and found that they are REALLY hard to crack.  People talk about all kinds of techniques on the web (like driving over them with your car), but I didn’t have much success.  

Tree Swallow on Black Walnut

However the real problem was that I learned that Black Walnuts leaves and roots give off juglone, a toxic substance to many other plants.  Most of the other things I planted on that slope seemed to have weak or limited growth and in particular the blueberries showed a general drop off in height the closer they got to the walnut tree.  It seemed the problem was only going to get worse as time went on so just before Christmas I took the fatal step and cut it down.  The walnut tree almost had the last laugh as despite my careful cuts and angles for felling the tree it fell in the exact opposite direction from what I had intended.  Fortunately I run fast.  So much for theory and practice.  

Black Walnut stump

So now the project is to find the ideal replacement for this singular tree.  It should be able to do all the things the Black Walnut did in that spot and if possible more.  One leading candidate is a Red Maple cultivar like ‘October Glory’ to get the fast growth in poor soil with outstanding color.  Many lovely trees really want better forest soil than I can offer on this rocky hillside.  I am open to suggestions…