It’s one thing to garden, it’s another to garden with toxicity problems. No, it’s not about nuclear waste, or anything near that dramatic, but we do have to deal with black walnut trees that spew a chemical called juglone. Cut ‘em down, you say. That won’t help. Even though a tree is removed, it has a whole bunch of roots to deal with, and it would be impossible to get rid of them. So since many plants, including fruits and vegetables, don’t thrive around (as far as 30 feet from the drip line) or under blank walnuts, one should just give up trying to garden with that stately but ‘poison tree, right? Wrong! Do a little research. Most good nurseries have information regarding what will thrive and thrive well even though surrounded by black walnut trees. Here are the plants I have in the shade gardens: hosta, astible, ligularia, perennial geranium, heuchera, pachysandra, Roger’s flower, and begonias. And there are plenty more on my nursery list that I haven’t tried. Here are some of the results:
