Recently got handed a bag of Walnuts with the admonition: “Okay Bill, you’re not bad at growing stuff. Try these.” Oh, right. I was planning some tree planting for the end of the month, but Walnuts, Hmm.
Apparently you have to select the most viable nuts by dropping them into a bucket of water for forty eight hours. The ones that sink are the ones you want, those that are still floating can be thrown away. Then plant out into 6 inch pots in a mix of sand and peat. Water whenever the soil dries out, and wait.
So that’s what I’ve done. No idea if it will work or not, but even if only half of the selected nuts sprout, that will give me at least fifteen viable saplings. So all I’ve got to do is live ten more years, and there will be fifteen Walnut trees up the meadow cropping Walnuts.
I grew up with a Walnut tree at the end of my garden. It’s been there for a century, is still there (I checked), and will probably be there for a century more. Unless some eejit cuts it down.
So while the world is going nuts. So am I. But I feel in a far more constructive way.
The Bill Sticker Alternative 
That gives you 10 years to figure out how to get to the walnuts before the squirrels.
LikeLike
We don’t have many squirrels. Hares, yes. Pheasants yes. Even Deer. Thinking about it, I haven’t seen any squirrels since we’ve been here, and we have dozens of trees around the property.
Is this going to be a case of “If you plant it, they will come”?
LikeLike
Friends of mine have a walnut tree outside their house, and hate it. They say it drops sap that ruins their cars’ paintwork.
LikeLike
Lime trees drop sap off their leaves that corrode car paint. Didn’t know about Walnut trees. However, mine are going to be planted at least three hundred metres from any road or parking.
LikeLike
Once you have a mature walnut, saplings will grow up around it like weeds. 1hey become a source not only of nuts but firewood. I have loads of them here
LikeLike
Looks like I’ll be going a bit nutty then. No idea if they’ll grow as well here in the wilder west of Ireland as in your neck of the woods, but it’s worth a punt.
LikeLike