WANT MORE GARDEN PROBLEMS? GROW A BLACK WALNUT TREE

PLANT A WALNUT AND DON'T BOTHER WITH ANYTHING ELSE!

ENGLISH WALNUT, ITS OFFICIAL NAME IS JUGLANS REGIA

Yes, there is a walnut tree on the plot next to mine.  I noticed it as a little sapling a few years ago.

At that time the plot was being cultivated, so I told the person who had the plot, that it would grow very big - he just said 'Oh, I was wondering what it was..."

How I wish I had sneaked in and cut it down then!  But I am too law-abiding.

Now the tree is quite large.  It has attractive silver bark and the squirrels really enjoy the nuts. 

English walnut tree trunk

Our allotment plot walnut tree is the English walnut, Juglans regia, and should not be confused with the Black Walnut tree, Juglans Nigra, which is widely grown in the USA.

JUGLONE

Some plants are apparently affected by Juglone, secreted from the leaves and roots of the walnut tree.

WHAT MIGHT BE AFFECTED?

TALKING ABOUT THE AMERICAN BLACK WALNUTS, TAKE A LOOK AT THIS
ASK COM. WHAT CAN'T I PLANT UNDER A BLACK WALNUT TREE?

This web site lists plants that are not good to plant under a Black Walnut tree - 
(remember, in England we have the English tree, I will call it the White Walnut as its trunk is whitish)

Asparagus, Cabbage, Aubergine, Peppers, Potatoes, Rhubarb, Tomatoes

English walnut next to my plot

The above two images were photographed by me on the allotment site in England.

Black Walnut, thanks to A. Giarraputo

Black Walnut nuts, thanks to A. Giarraputo

The above images of Black Walnuts are reproduced with the kind permission of A. Giarraput who photographed them in New York State, USA.  

The English walnut does not produced Juglone to the same extent as the Black walnut tree.
I found some information from links kindly supplied by Steve at Burncoose Nursery, the lovely nursery in Cornwall.  Burncoose sells walnut trees, in case you want to buy one!

BURNCOOSE NURSERIES, CORNWALL

Royal Horticultural Society Walnut information

The Royal Horticultural Society says tomatoes and apples are particularly affected.

Here is what I noticed on Wikipedia, where there is a lot of information:

"Mature trees may reach 50 feet in height and width, and live more than 200 years, developing massive trunks more than eight feet thick."

it looks as though our tree is going to outlive us!  I think we should cut our allotment site's tree down now and not wait for it to get 50 feet tall..... but then I will not be around in 200 years time, I wonder if allotments will be around then?

BLACK WALNUTS  - JUGLANS NIGRA - AN IMAGE OF ITS TRUNK

Black Walnut, thanks A Giarraputo for image

This is the tree we do NOT have.

WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE   uwex.edu

According to Wisconsin Horticulture, which deals with American horticulture not English, you can grow:  
Beans, beetroot, carrot, sweetcorn, melon, onions, parsnips and squash, but there is a long list of OK plants which includes flowers and trees too.


What they say on Wikipedia about Black Walnut trees:

"A number of other plants including apples, tomatoes, and white birch are also poisoned by juglone, and should not be planted in close proximity to a black walnut. Horses are susceptible to laminitis from exposure to black walnut wood in bedding."

As well as eating all the walnuts, the squirrels in our area also enjoy the hazel nuts from my cob nut trees so they are getting very fat and cheeky.  And produce lots of little squirrel pups, of course.  I wonder if our resident foxes like nuts too?

WHAT WAS GOOD ABOUT GARDENING IN 2013?

WE HAD A GOOD YEAR, DIDN'T WE?

Now at the tail end of the year, when it is dark and wet and cold, it is nice to look back at photos of your garden.

Pleasant to do because some of the best parts I photographed, and they are good to remind yourself, ready for next year.  I will put a few of these photos on this blog.

Frogspawn, arrived late

Marsh marigolds in my pond

Lovely bees on the cornflowers on my plot

Hope the cornflowers come back next year

Potatoes did very well this year

Symptom of the dreaded brown rot on apple tree

Self sown poppies by the pond

Cucumber plants in the greenhouse

My friendly neighbour on the next plot

The squash plant

Lily, so beautiful

Two more friends on the allotment

The hemerocalis bought at Walmer Castle

Big, juicy and delicious

Pelargoniums I admired at Walmer Castle

The veronica plant hates hot dry summers, I don't

Chilies in the greenhouse, good crop

Nicotiana bought at a plant fair, still flowering in November

Nice to come home to, front garden

Virginia creeper, also self-sown (from next door)

Now its winter I must read this

Delightful stone sculpture at Wisley RHS garden

Also at Wisley Autumn Show, these cheerful local brewers

TULIPS

Late autumn is of course the time to plant tulip bulbs, and I have just bought the very last lot, half price at the Garden Centre.  These are 6 Queen of Night and 6 Ballerina, plus 20 dwarf assorted colours, unnamed varieties.  Got to get out there tomorrow and plant them, in a place where I do not remember seeing tulips last year (not an easy task).  I hope the pesky squirrels leave them alone.

FIRST FROST

The frosts have started and I just went into the greenhouse and covered the scented pelargoniums in their big pots (too big to come into the house) with a bit of horticultural fleece I collected from the allotment rubbish heap.  Hope the little darlings make it through, as most of the cuttings I took from them do not seem to have taken.  It costs quite a bit to buy new pelargoniums for the next year.

ALLOTMENT - MORE PROBLEMS!

Yesterday as it was not raining or blowing, I dug up yet more clumps of grass on my allotment.  All the grass seeds blow over from the next plot, which is not cultivated.  Then by the spring, these grass clumps are huge, with mega root systems.  I have learned this by bitter experience!

An ongoing problem, too, apart from all the other problems over on the allotment, is a very large walnut tree on another uncultivated plot.  It is self-sown, not very old but already spreading its branches across over my raspberry patch. It has walnuts every year, and every year the squirrels get every single nut.

I asked if it was going to be felled, and a member of our committee replied that it probably has a 'Tree Preservation Order' on it, thus preventing its removal.  Quite mad!  It means that nobody will take this plot and cultivate it, as the tree takes all the nourishment from the soil.

BRASSICAS AND PIGEONS

My brassicas are now cover up with an assortment of nets, bits of old plastic fencing, chicken wire and yet more nets, weighted down with old bricks -  all to keep off the pigeons.  It is so impenetrable that I have given up trying to get into it and pick a few brussel sprouts.  Will make a supreme effort if there are still sprouts left, to get some for Christmas lunch, yum!

MAY NOT BE MUCH MORE NEWS ABOUT GARDENS IN DECEMBER BUT KEEP WATCHING THIS SPACE - YOU NEVER KNOW

DO YOU HATE SQUIRRELS IN THE GARDEN?

SQUIRRELS ARE A PEST IN THE LONDON SUBURBS

Elegant protection against squirrels, the predators

 FLOWER BULBS, PARTICULARLY CROCUSES IN POTS

I have to protect them from the pesky squirrels, of which we seem to have several dozen frisking about the fences and trees.  I have put daffs and tulips, plus a few crocus and some little blue iris, in pots and have made them really decorative with these mesh things, from old appliances, which I found on the dump where I have my allotment.  Pretty ?

Little bulbs need protection from squirrels

Even so, I found one pot, where there was a couple of crocus bulbs left from last spring, had a large hole dug in it and the bulb eaten, drat!  I had to put yet more protection over it.

SQUIRRELS ATTEMPT TO  INVADE HOUSE

Damage done by squirrel getting into loft

You can understand why I don't like squirrels, apart from them eating the bulbs.  They tried and nearly succeeded in getting into our loft a few years ago, and did a great deal of damage gnawing the soffit boards etc round the roof.  It cost us a fortune to get it all repaired.

POND PROBLEMS

I wrote earlier in the year about the mega large waterlily.  The blossoms were lovely, but the waterlily had to be moved on.  I left the pot with the plant growing in it  for somebody else to use in their pond.  Maybe this is called 'pond-cycling'?

Alas, the waterlily got too big and had to go

There was a very big accumulation of leaves from the waterlily plant, which I had acquired from the allotment dump a couple of years ago. I had to brace myself and sink my arms into the pond to grab hold of the plant and heave it out.  Then I had to do the same with some very huge water plants that were also doing a take-over bid.  This is the result, not a pretty sight.  But maybe next year will be better (I always say that).

Pond minus plants and waterlily

CHILLIES

The chillies did very well, probably because it was a warm summer with lots of sunshine.  I planted the seeds in February, in my heated propagator in the house.

Beautiful chillies from February seed sowing

MICHAELMAS DAISIES

These were so nice to come home to, after our autumn holiday.  They brightened up the front garden and flowered for a week or two.  Now they have all gone to seed, and are not very pretty.

Dwarf michaelmas daisies, called Bermuda, I think

 

Wonder if I should cut the seed heads off to prevent unwanted plants?  Previous years I got lots of unwanted, self-sown michaelmas daisies of the huge type, those ones with very pale mauve flowers.  So I was stern with myself and yanked them all out earlier in the year.  It is satisfying to do this, because they pull up really easily.  Here is a photo of the garden in early October with the dwarf michaelmas daisies, but now its much less pretty!

Nice to look at, in the middle of dreary November

YOU TOO CAN HAVE BROWN ROT ON YOUR APPLES

BROWN ROT ON APPLES, WE ALL HAVE IT, DON'T WE?

The ones who got away

I have the dreaded Brown Rot every year in the garden.  Of the three trees, the cooker gets the rot worst, then the early eater, Greensleeves, and then the late eater, which I think has a thicker skin.  Maybe I should get a thicker skin too, because I find the appearance of the rot most distressing, and nary a year passes without its presence.

APPLES IN 2013 WERE FINE TO START WITH, AFTER A LATE SPRING

Apparently the rot is a fungal disease, according to a helpful leaflet from the Royal Horticultural Society entitled (wait for it) 'Brown Rot'.

The leaflet explains that it affects apples, pears, plums, cherries and other fruit. You can't win.

PLUMS GET IT TOO

My plums, supposedly Marjorie's Seedling, had the rots so bad that I got not a single plum to eat this year.  The plum tree is on the allotment, and I chose this variety because it is said to have some resistance to rot, but not a bit of it.  The tree is the object of my displeasure and if it does not behave itself, it is for the chop.

THE SYMPTOMS OF BROWN ROT

It spreads out "from wounds, especially those made by birds, codling moth and apple scab infection".

The fruit may "remain hanging on the tree in a mummified state"

Yes, I get the mummies, and I pick off the apple mummies, but the plums?  The tree is too big for me to reach them.

THE WEATHER WAS HOT AND DRY THIS SUMMER

I though that might stop the rot, but no.  I think I spent many happy hours crawling on all fours, picking up the rotten fruit from under the trees.  Apparently this is what you do, and you must remove it promptly, according the the RHS.

This is just some of them, there were more!

NETS TO STOP THE DEAR LITTLE BIRDS DAMAGING THE APPLES

If possible, I should 'net to reduce bird damage'.  Easier said than done, when you have three apple trees and your collection of rather ragged nets is in use on the raspberries and strawberries at the crucial time.  Maybe I should just fork out for more nets ......  ££££

BONFIRES NOT ALLOWED

I should also "prune out and burn infected spurs and blossoms to reduce the amount of fungus available to infect fruit".   Sounds good, but where do you burn the spurs and blossoms?  There are not many of these spurs, so not enough for a bonfire, and in any case we are not supposed to light bonfires on our allotments otherwise we might annoy the neighbours.

Last of the early eaters

FINALLY,  JUST TO CHEER US ALL UP

Note this:  'the fungus remains in the dead fruit and cankers over winter and releases spores in the spring to cause the blossom wilt phase of the disease."  

Well, this particular blossom is feeling decidedly wilted, just thinking of all the extra work next spring!

RATS

We have got quite a few apples, nevertheless and am still eating them.  There is nowhere much to store them, since they have to be stored in the house.  

One year I put the apples in the greenhouse, while we were away on an autumn break, and found lots of nibbles had been taken out of them when we got back.  Mice, I though?  

That year I then put the apples in the house and so the RATS moved in too!  We had an invasion of rats, who gnawed any apple they could find, even gnawing away at the carpet by the closed door of the room where they could smell the apples. Trying the get through the gap at the bottom of the door.

So (its a long story) we blocked up every possible hole where the rats gained entrance, and are very wary of where we store our apples now.

The last apple of 2013