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The Monday Garden, December 12, 2004, Issue 141

Eco-gardening at its best
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It started in California, as many things do. And like so many things Californian, we, on the East Coast, think if we ignore them long enough, they'll go away. Seldom happens. Now, there's an advisory out from the Connecticut Department of Forestry of "a very troubling development".

"Sudden Oak Death" is not a kind of baseball or poker. It's a stealthy serial killer of our great American oaks. Unless you look closely, the tree seems fine; but, then, suddenly, it wilts and dies in a month. However, the signs are there a year or two earlier-- inspect the trunk carefully for irregularities such as lesions or seeping sap.

The Monday Garden, January 30, 2005, Issue 149
Eco-gardening at its best

Our native black walnuts are forest trees; they like to stretch their roots in deep, rich, moist, acidy forest soil. However, even the babies can’t tolerate shade, so new black walnut trees have trouble getting started except in clearings and at the forest edge. Further, the nuts are so large and heavy that the squirrels can’t transport them very far. Thus, the only way for the seeds to be disbursed over long distances is by water (hence, the prevalence of black walnuts along forest streams) and by human.

picture: mature black walnut with the back of the new courthouse in the background (Juglans nigraa), Bedford Street Stamford, CT January 2004

While young black walnuts (Juglans nigra) can be easily confused with the alien ailanthus, and with other trees with palm-like pinnately compound leaves, such as the native staghorn sumac, ash, and locust, there’s no mistaking the lime green “golf ball” nuts on teenage and mature black walnut trees.