Sunday, December 16, 2007

Unusual weed














I had this tenacious weed in a flower bed this summer. I pulled, wacked and hacked around on it with a trowel trying to dig it out several times before I asked My DB to dig it out. DB even tried to pull it before he got the shovel. You wouldn't think this little thing would be holding its ground so tightly. We were certainly surprised to find that it was a small walnut tree.

You can see how this tree splits the nut in the middle along the seam. Roots shoot out the sides and the tap root goes deep and stong.

I sometimes wish we would have put it out in the side lot where DB is creating his arboretum. However after all my hacking on it it had several trunks coming up. Not a great start for a tree.

My DB has planted several native trees in the side lot. They look like a bunch of little sticks that someone has stuck into the ground but one day they will be great attractors of bird. Especially during spring migration.








I can't tell you where the nearest walnut tree is located in this neighborhood. Some enterprising squirrel must have carried it for a long way to plant it in our garden.
DB has transplanted several gifts from the squirrels into the side lot. I think that if we are gifted with another walnut we will find a place for it.

15 comments:

  1. That's kinda cool, Lisa. I'll have to watch now and see if any of the English walnuts squirrels have been burying in my yard will sprout.

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  2. Lisa, it is funny what serious bird watching does to a person. I too am wondering what else to plant to feed the birds.

    My parents have several oak trees, and once those acorns take root they are the dickens to pull up. I can't imagine how tough a walnut would be to pull.

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  3. I reckon anything growing in the wrong place is a weed, but who'd have thunk "walnut" when battling a tenacious invader?

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  4. Years ago, when we lived in Kentucky, we planted several Carpathian walnut trees. It took several years before they began to bear nuts and we were so excited that first year and couldn't wait to harvest the nuts. Well, the squirrels got to them first and in all the years we lived there, they got every single nut!

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  5. ruthiej I think this walnut was a Black Walnut.

    Robin, IMO you can't get too many "birdy" plants in your garden.

    Marvin, that is just what I thought when DB pulled that walnut out of the ground. I was just facinated with it.

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  6. We also have these walnut trees planted by squirrels. Tenacious is the word for sure.

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  7. Every spring I get black walnut and oak trees all through the yard. I wish the pecan tree (diseased when we moved in, than late frost last year) would produce, I would love to have starts from that tree! But I also have redbud, mimosa, maple, and catalupa that come up EVERYWHERE.

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  8. I'm sure you will find a good place for it, Lisa. Even if it turns out to be a scrub, the birds needs all they can get.

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  9. That's interesting.
    It is not black walnut, just walnut, right? Because black walnut the leaves look different( I had two in my former garden)

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  10. Lisa... I have no black walnut anywhere near me, yet found a seedling for one in my garden, at least that is what it looked like to me. Squirrels must carry those nuts a long way to bury them!

    Carol, May Dreams Gardens

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  11. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
    The walnuts apart from the squirrels him transport also certain big birds, as the crows, him leave from some height and them falling break, go down afterwards and eat internal toys,(To saw many times happening).
    Likely somebody of them it fell in soft earth, did not break, it was covered from the earth and some moment it sprouted.
    I believe that an other reasonable explanation!

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  12. My grandparents had a huge black walnut tree beside their house when I was a kid. I have very fond memories of being on that sidewalk, cracking those nuts open with a hammer and enjoying the strong taste of them.

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  13. Christine, we also get lots of redbud and ash trees springing up all around.

    Giddy, another reason not to like squirrels. :/

    Kostas, you might be right. We have crows that come around here some.

    I too remember that bitter taste of the Black Walnuts Jayne. My mother would bake with black walunts every christmas. It was my Dad's job to take me to collect nuts from the forest. Big job for little girl. It was always a fight to pick the meats from the nuts.

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  14. lisa, we don't have walnut trees this far south but the acorns from all of our oaks have fallen in record numbers this year. i know that means i will have loads of sprouts through out my lawn come spring. i don't think i've seen a squirrel without an acorn in its mouth since October... they are literally everywhere.

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