permaculture

["urbana permaculture project" <upp@anacroatan.org>]

On the Black Walnut tip:

Black Walnuts and Hackberries are symbionts for one another, and 
allelopathic for separate but overlapping groups of understory plants. 

The late leafing out, and early dormancy however makes Bl. Walnut a 
great candidate for guild building, if you know which species to use. 
In Urbana, IL we grow the following under a 150 year old Juglans nigra 
surrounded by hackberries and suburban development:

American Black Currant - Ribes spp.
European Currant varieties - Ribes spp.
(other Ribes spp. transplanted this year...)
Elderberry - Sambucus canadensis
Siberian Pea Shrub - Caragana spp. - legume
Mulberries - Morus spp.
Alpine Strawberries - Fragaria vesca
Goldenseal - Hydrastis canadensis
Wild Ginger - Asarum canadense
Pawpaw - Asimina triloba
Redbud - Cercis canadensis - legume

The recently published Gaia's Garden (Hemmingway, 2001) uses Black 
Walnut as its primary example for a tree guild and includes Wolfberry 
and Hackberry... we've also found that Dandelions, Violets, and 
Creeping Charlie have outcompeted any grasses growing underneath the 
Black Walnuts in Urbana, IL... given the absence of a mowing regime, 
that is. It is also a fine environment for controlling a small patch of 
Sunchokes (Heliantus tuberosa) and Lamb's Quarters (Chenopodium).

The point is that you can grow stuff underneath Black Walnut if you 
experiment. Everything else we've tried is dead.

Rob
Urbana Permaculture Project