Evening sun on the walnut trees

 

Walnut Trees

What to do with Walnuts

We have two walnut trees at the top of our garden. When we arrived in 2006 they were fairly modest, quite dainty trees. Now they are very large.

They don't come into leaf until June and have shed all by mid October so they must have pretty efficient constitutions.

We have had a few nuts in previous years but this year they have gone crazy. I've picked up off the floor 3 buckets-full and could probably find more in the long grass and under the raspberries. We were told by the previous owners of Froggarts Cottage that they aren't English walnuts, I think she said Italian. The leaves are thinner than English walnuts and the nuts inside the hulls are ridged lengthwise rather than rippled and smooth as the English nuts are.

Thought I better do a bit of research to find out what I can do with all these nuts. Turns out they are likely to be American Eastern Black walnuts."junglans nigra".  They have smaller kernels which are tricky to get out, which is what we've found with ours.

Earlier in the year when the first nuts formed I tried pickling some but haven't yet tried eating them. For pickling walnuts need to be under-ripe with the inside shell still soft. Problem is the nuts grow high up so if this appears to be a good use we'll have to use the tall ladders to reach them.

Once they have fallen from the tree Googling suggests bashing the green hulls with a wooden mallet and peeling off by hand. Will need to wear gloves because they stain fingers black.

Autumn leaves

Suddenly everything is golden. The leaves on the trees - those that are still attached - are various shades of yellow, red and brown, but mostly bright, golden yellow. The big cherry tree has started to drop leaves, aided by the stiff breeze. The big ash that we were so worried about in the early summer is completely denuded. Now it's a playground for all kinds of birds as a staging post between the rowan berries in our neighbour's garden and the bright red berries on the big hawthorn tree in our hedge. Big fat wood-pigeons, crows, blackbirds and some smaller birds which I think are field-fares. There's also some very small birds - possibly long-tail tits which move so fast I can't identify them. They are fun to watch.

The leaves are so lovely I made a picture from some of the maple leaves.

Autumn leaves from the maple.

Spring frost

The gorgeous sunny days we've had recently have lulled us into a false security. Over the weekend I was tidying up the greenhouse ready for planting the tomatoes in a couple of weeks. So I dragged the big pots of potatoes outside. They looked pretty sturdy and I thought they might benefit from fresh air and maybe a drop of rain. I put out a fuchsia too.
Well, the inevitable - a frost last night zapped the potatoes, not too much, and devastated the poor fuchsia. Hopefully it will survive. It was donated by a neighbour who told me it was hardy and she always left it outside all winter.
The magnolia, which this year had escaped the usual "toasting" by spring frosts and has been glorious, definitely has a brown tinge.
However, the potatoes from the conservatory in pots just outside by the house were unaffected.
Undeterred, and with the promise of rain this evening, I planted out 50 beetroot seedlings in the "leek bed" (where we don't grow leeks anymore because of the allium leaf miner).

Hazel Catkins

Spring is springing! The snowdrops are amazing this year and shrubs are sprouting. The Hazel bush is covered in yellow lambs-tail catkins. They look dramatic against the blue sky.

Hazel Catkins

We look forward to nuts, cob nuts some people call them, but every year the squirrels get them just when they are perfectly ripe. They leave little piles of shells around the orchard.

Even though no nuts, the hazel is useful. Tall straight shoots emerge from the centre of the tree (withies) which can be cut and used for bean-poles and stakes. They're stronger than bamboos and cheaper than buying poles from the garden centre.

Dramatic yellow Hazel Catkins against the blue sky

NO-vember

I remember this poem as a kid - about the limit of my poetry-remembering skills! (If it was me writing I could nearly add No blog!)

November by Thomas Hood

No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November! 

Don't know much about Mr Hood (read Wikipedia entry here when I get a chance) but I think he was being a bit pessimistic or perhaps he was a townie.

Today - last day of November - we've had a few hours of bright sunshine and blue skies, lovely for walking, and during this month the moon has been bright and large when we've had clear night skies.

As for "no birds"!

The bare trees provide a great opportunity to see birds of all kinds which are normally hidden by leaves. Our maple was alive with long-tail tits. And this year we have some winter visitors - fieldfares. I don't remember seeing them so close to the garden before, only in ploughed fields when I've been out walking. This afternoon there were 20 or more at the top of the walnut trees taking advantage of the last rays of the setting sun.

Image from BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Fieldfare

Fantastic storm

We're having wild, wet, windy autumn weather. On Saturday we had a fantastic storm. The sky was yellow and the colours in the garden were very strange. The sun was shining on the yellow leaves of the walnut tree while the rain was hammering on the conservatory roof and a big rainbow arced over the whole garden. So I had to run out and take some shots and got very wet!

Rainbow with our little apple tree - still hanging onto its red fruit.

Yellow sky - looking across the field to Clay Lane

Rainbow over our two walnut trees - leaves turning an Autumn yellow

Magnificent Magnolia

This year our magnolia tree has been magnificent. It started flowering 4 weeks ago and we had a dodgy couple of mornings after frosty nights when we thought the flowers had been "toasted" by the frost. This often stops them opening and they look sad and still-born while all the spring flowers are bursting into life around the garden.
Here it is in it's glory:

Our magnolia tree.

Turning yellow

Yellow tones in the maple and walnut trees. Golden hosta leaves below the rockery.

Yesterday we did a quick trip to family in Dublin. Driving along by Phoenix Park the trees were so beautiful with reds and oranges and browns intermingled with dark green.

Last weekend I took some photos of Froggarts Cottage Garden with the foliage on trees, bushes and herbaceous plants like hostas turning distinctly yellow. We arrived home from the airport at midnight to see a carpet of yellow leaves blown down from the big ash trees in the  the field. Today the ash trees and the walnuts and maples are beginning to look very bare. Seems like we're not getting the vivid colours we have some years. Perhaps it was the lack of sunshine this year. The golden yellows are beautiful anyway.

Redcurrant bushes are turning yellow and starting to shed leaves

More yellow tinges, set off with the black-eyed daisies which have flowered all summer long

Variagated shrub with extra autumn hues

Don't know the name of this lovely small tree. It has beech-like leaves and small yellow flowers
in the early spring before the leaves come out.

The last of the squashes - colourful "Celebration".