The Majestic Walnut Tree - Part 8 of our garden makeover

Garden transformation Part 8 – Freeing the walnut

As you’ve probably realised by now, I love our walnut tree! In fairness I love all mature native British trees, but this is the first one I’ve had in my garden.

It goes back to my childhood and lovely walks with my dad. It’s when he taught me all the ways of the countryside. Including, always walk towards the traffic on narrow lanes, that way you’ll see the car before it hits you lol. NEVER shelter under a tree when it’s lightening! Always shut gates behind you. Keep your dog on a lead when there’s livestock around.

It all seems so obvious, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be taught as much as it once was.

Anyway back to the trees. The one stretch of our walk took us across fields, with mature trees dotted here and there, very Capability Brown! This is still my favourite type of landscape, probably because it reminds me of my happy childhood.

Although now, having spent most of my life in North Wales, I am very partial to the Welsh hills and all the streams and rivers that meander down them, with of course trees overhanging. Bet-ys-coed is one of my favourite areas.

When we were looking to move house (well garden is more accurate). I came to view this property and I went straight through the house to the back window to see the garden – the important bit! I was over the moon when I saw three mature trees at the end. I have two sisters so these are – ‘the three sisters’.

I had no idea that one of these trees was in the garden, and was going to be ours.

I went outside to look around the garden before I’d even looked around the house. The end of the garden was so overgrown, it was impossible to even get anywhere near to the tree.

August 2013 -What no nuts!

When we finally moved in, a neighbour told us the walnut was in our garden, but it seemed very hard to believe.

When we moved in that August the tree was heaving with nuts. Ironically I’m allergic to walnuts! My mum and husband on the other hand are not and love them. They were both really looking forward to some fresh walnuts – but the squirrels had other ideas. Before they were even ripe that first autumn, the squirrels arrived en-mass and stripped the tree clean, it’s hard to believe, but they didn’t leave a poultry one.

October 2013 – Reaching the walnut

It took us two months from moving in to reach the walnut. For the first month we both did nothing but chop back foliage, here there and everywhere.

As we were desperate to start planting food crops I started building raised beds, whilst my husband carried on chopping! Finally he reached the tree!

The poor tree had been covered in ivy, but action had been taken before we arrived to get rid of it. There was dead ivy all over it and every storm we had, brought more down.

November 2013 – Freeing the walnut

The holly hedge had grown right across the bottom of the tree. We had read that you should cut holly in November, so it was good timing. We started the mammoth job of tackling the 80ft long holly hedge. Starting by freeing the walnut. The beautiful trunk appeared.

February 2014 – Levelling the ground

The end of the garden had been used as a compost area. As a result of years’ worth of debris the soil level was a good 18” higher than the rest of the garden, seen by the tide mark on the tree.

We (the royal we) set about cutting down and digging out all of the self seeded holly shrubs. Then digging years worth of composted soil out. As I’ve said time and time again, you have to dig our soil with a pick, as it is 50% soil 50% stone. It is then riddled to make it useable.

October 2016 – Walnuts at last

The local Lord in our village had a squirrel cull. The result was astonishing, buckets full of walnuts, they were falling as fast as we could collect them. Obviously no good for me! But my mum and husband finally got their fresh walnuts. There were so many I was giving them away and there were even enough to crush up and give to the birds. They went down very well.

December – March 2016 – Landscaping

We finally got around to landscaping under the walnut. As it’s at the end of the garden it has the compost bins right next to it. They are open to the ground so all the nutrients will be leaching down and feeding the tree.

In summer the canopy is so dense, it is quite dark down in that part of the garden. As I’ve always wanted a white garden – my little bit of Sissinghurst, this was the perfect spot. I’m thrilled with this part of the garden, the white flowers look so bright in the dim light.

The Squirrels – Not all bad

The squirrels have returned! More of them each year meaning not a single nut falls that hasn’t already been nibbled at. The really annoying thing is that they pull loads of nuts off before they are even ripe. Trust me you don’t want to stand under the tree when they are in full dining mode, as the empty cases rain down.

There’s always a plus side though and my little furry friends plant walnuts all over the garden. As they have such a bumper crop to themselves, they don’t bother to come and dig most of them up. Resulting in little walnut seedling all over the garden. I can’t resist digging them up and planting them on. I now have a little walnut nursery.

Unfortunately most people don’t have a garden big enough to accommodate a fully matured walnut, so they are not easy to give away. Luckily we have a disused quarry in the village, that has been turned into a wildlife forestry walking area and they were able to take some of our larger tree saplings.

A long lived Tree

The English Walnut ‘Juglans Regia’ can grow to 120ft high and live to 400 years. It produces edible nuts and the wood is coveted for furniture making, because of the beautiful patterns.

The diameter of our tree is 82″ almost 2.1m and approximately 70ft or 21m high. According to some calculations I’ve found online, it suggests that the tree is over 300 years old. What must it have witnessed?

This is another reason I love trees so much, because they dwarf our lifespan and put us back in our box. We think we are so important, but we are just a little blip in a trees life. We should think of ourselves as custodians of our beautiful planet.

Always hoping that lightening stays away from the tree.

I love this tree so much, especially the bark it is just so tactile that I feel the need to touch it whenever I go to the compost bins. I have occasionally given it a hug. So it’s official, I am a tree hugger!