Subject: What do I plant under walnut trees

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 23:44:29 GMT

I'm helping a friend plan her garden in Bucks County PA - she has some lovely shady
moist spots yearning for plants, but they are located under black walnut
trees.  I've heard they do something to the soil that inhibits growth...
What/who would be happy in this local?

---

From: [email-masked] (Jill Arnson)
Date: 22 Mar 1995 21:04:23 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Molly Waterman <[email-masked]> wrote:
>I have some Black Walnuts too, nothing planted under them yet, but I'm
>planning....  I was worried about this alleged growth inhibitor too, and 
>

My next door neighbors have a walnut tree and I've never had any problems
planting things under its "drip line".  Neither has she. and this includes
all sorts of things from strawberries to tomatoes to green beans to
marigolds.  I suspect this is a "white" walnut.  Does anyone know how to
tell the difference? and are there other kinds of walnuts as well?

jill

-- 
Jill C. Arnson
Omnipoint Corporation
Colorado Springs, Co  (but Denver's where I hang my hat)
[email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (Mike Nesson)
Date: 22 Mar 1995 01:46:06 GMT

Re: What grows under a walnut tree?
Hi:
My wife and I do a lot of ornamental gardening, and since we have a number of
black walnuts in our focus area, we do a lot of gardening under black walnuts.

This list of things that seem to thrive under walnuts will be in a non-random
order, not taxonomic, but as I mentally walk from bed to bed:

Vinca, both major and minor (periwinkle)
Hemerocallis (daylily)
Angelica, self-seeding
Daffodils
Iris
Herbaceous Peonies
Tree Peonies
Lilacs
Buddleias (butterfly bush)
Cyclamen (coum, Ithink)
Rhododendrons
A Clematis climbing up a rustic trellis directly on a walnut trunk
Hydrangea petiolaris climbing up a walnut trunk
Linum (perennial flax)
Wild Blackberries, of course and word has it that raspberries also really love
it under walnuts (not first-hand knowledge, though)
Ruta (rue)
Creeping Phlox
Various Thymes on a rock wall immediately under a walnut
Yuccas
Various ornamental grasses
A patch of leeks and some rhubarb from a prior owner's veggie garden

There's lots more, but I'd need to go back home and walk around some more to
review. So don't despair; your planting palette is far from limited. For some
of the plantings above, we remove the nuts and leaves for cosmetic purposes
pretty frequently during the fall, but for other things, they sit and grow
quite happily through the dense leaf fall.

When first we moved onto the property, I proudly gathered up lots of the
walnut leaves and dumped them in a central pile in the sloping vegetable
garden area. For at least three years thereafter, I could easily detect
exactly the drainage pattern, because the rows of plants across the hill face
would look like this:

*************************           ********************
lllllllllllllllllllllllll**       **lllllllllllllllllll
lllllllllllllllllllllllllll ***** lllllllllllllllllllll
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

with a u-shaped depression in plant heights where I'd dumped the leaves.
So, don't use the raked up leaves for mulch except around plants that you
already find are tolerant of the juglones.
Lots of luck. Even though the black walnuts are messy in the fall and slow to
leaf out in the spring, they are truly beautiful trees with a magnificent
quality of filtered shade underneath during the summer.

Mike N.
-- 
    
   _______________________________________________________________________ 
   Michael Nesson  [email-masked]  (503)737-1866   FAX:(503)737-0481   
      Dept. of Biochem/Biophys., AgLS 2011, Oregon State University 
	 Corvallis, OR 97331-7305
-- 
    
   _______________________________________________________________________ 
   Michael Nesson  [email-masked]  (503)737-1866   FAX:(503)737-0481   
      Dept. of Biochem/Biophys., AgLS 2011, Oregon State University

---

From: [email-masked] (LynnDHop)
Date: 21 Mar 1995 11:35:06 -0500

In Message-ID: <[email-masked]> [email-masked] says:

>I'm helping a friend plan her garden in Bucks County PA - she has some
lovely >shady moist spots yearning for plants, but they are located under
black walnut
>What/who would be happy in this local?

Sorry I can't help you with that one.  You are right about the chemical
inhibitor.  I think I've read of one or two plants that can handle it, but
I'm afraid I can't remember what they are.  Incidentally, other plants
share this characteristic- sunflower seeds release an inhibitory
chemical...ever notice that the grass dies out below a bird feeder?
[email-masked] (Lynn D. Warner)

---

From: [email-masked] (Molly Waterman)
Date: 21 Mar 1995 18:55:21 GMT

I have some Black Walnuts too, nothing planted under them yet, but I'm
planning....  I was worried about this alleged growth inhibitor too, and 
asked a certified arborist about it.  He said members of the Nightshade
Family (one of which is tomatoes) won't do well, but everything else 
will.  Another gardener on this list also told me that salvia does
wonderfully under them.  I really don't think we have that much to 
worry about.  I'm gonna start small, plant what I want under there and
see how it does.....

Good Luck,
Molly

---

From: [email-masked] (Jill Arnson)
Date: 22 Mar 1995 21:04:23 GMT

jill

---

From: [email-masked] (Mike Nesson)
Date: 22 Mar 1995 01:46:06 GMT

Mike N.
--

---

From: [email-masked] (LynnDHop)
Date: 21 Mar 1995 11:35:06 -0500

---

From: [email-masked] (Molly Waterman)
Date: 21 Mar 1995 18:55:21 GMT

Good Luck,
Molly