Imbolc blessings! As promised, here are a few more photos of the black walnut grove I started in the fall of 2018. These photos bring us up to date with the emergence of my black walnut grove. Over the past four and a half years, in addition to the original black walnut saplings I have planted many other trees (both canopy and understory), bushes, herbaceous plants (for food and medicine), and flora that occupy the rhizome layer. I have strived to encourage fungal partnerships through woody debris decomposition, as well as fostering mycorrhizae-friendly soil conditions. I continuously marvel at the ever changing beauty of this forest garden, and am inspired to keep planting, keep tending, keep observing. Needless to say, I am always learning.
With these last few pictures I want to pay homage to the beautiful mother tree of my black walnut grove. These photos were taken in the late summer of 2018 in Lake St. Peter, Ontario. I gathered some of the walnuts from this tree before I moved back to Nova Scotia. With these seeds I continued to expand my walnut groves on our Cape Breton homestead, and have started offering black walnut trees to other dendrophiles through my small business Grandmother Birch Forest Garden Designs.
Thanks for reading Ruth’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
There are actually quite a few plants that exhibit varying degrees of tolerance to juglone. Of course there are other considerations to take into account as well --- such as shade - as your canopy grows, available light will also become a limiting factor for most annuals. My addition of the squash beds (this past fall I planted garlic in this same bed) is more in keeping with the horticultural design systems of many Indigenous people, rather than our contemporary forest garden schemes we have come to accept as the standard. In the more traditional 'forest gardens' or shifting cultivation, annual plantings were included at early stages of a woodland gardens development. Sometimes this is called milpa agriculture. This makes a lot of sense to me! You can grow a lot of food in the early years of a forest garden's development, while waiting for your trees and shrubbery to mature. There are many good sources of info. on the internet to let you know what annuals (and perennials) grow companionably with walnuts. Here is a really interesting (albeit lengthy) article on forest gardens and the cultural landscapes of the Haudenosaunne and other Indigenous people.
There are actually quite a few plants that exhibit varying degrees of tolerance to juglone. Of course there are other considerations to take into account as well --- such as shade - as your canopy grows, available light will also become a limiting factor for most annuals. My addition of the squash beds (this past fall I planted garlic in this same bed) is more in keeping with the horticultural design systems of many Indigenous people, rather than our contemporary forest garden schemes we have come to accept as the standard. In the more traditional 'forest gardens' or shifting cultivation, annual plantings were included at early stages of a woodland gardens development. Sometimes this is called milpa agriculture. This makes a lot of sense to me! You can grow a lot of food in the early years of a forest garden's development, while waiting for your trees and shrubbery to mature. There are many good sources of info. on the internet to let you know what annuals (and perennials) grow companionably with walnuts. Here is a really interesting (albeit lengthy) article on forest gardens and the cultural landscapes of the Haudenosaunne and other Indigenous people.
https://www.nomadseed.com/2020/11/owasco-agroforestry/
Thanks for sharing! Your progress is amazing, and I love the addition of the squash plants. I didn't realize they aren't juglone-sensitive.