Those Blasted Walnuts

We have a few black walnut trees in the yard.   Every other year they have a bumper crop of walnuts that drop all over the yard and garden.

All.  Over.

It's a chore to pick them up, but it's good exercise.   And we can save some for dyeing.   The rest are raked into piles and then dumped across the way for the squirrels, or left in the road.    

Last year, I raked a monster pile to the edge of yard and then forgot about it.    This spring, it started growing.  

Because I need 250 more walnut trees next to the mailbox. 

So I got a rake and a shovel one day last week and took care of it.  

The good news is that it had composted beautifully!  There were four wheelbarrow loads full of walnut debris.   I hauled it all across the way. 

The bad news is that when I was done, I had a huge bare patch in the yard.  I had forgotten that a pile of walnuts is toxic to whatever is underneath.

I figure it'll grow grass again sometime.  In a decade.  

In the meantime, it'll be easy to mow.   And fun to see which weeds take that spot over first.   I'm hoping it'll be the wild vinca.   I like that stuff.