Horrible news!

We got some horrible news the other day. Tommy asked our neighbor Willard about when we should think about planting tomatoes etc. in our vegetable garden. Willard says that he can hardly grow tomatoes or peppers at all because of his black walnut tree.
What???
Evidently, black walnut trees exude a chemical called "juglone" that is toxic to many other plants...especially tomatoes, peppers, roses, lilacs, the list goes disappointingly on and on. Luckily, I guess, both day lilies and iris are less affected. Those were the only two flowers existing in our yard when we moved in. We also have a crab apple tree and a dogwood (at least I think its a dogwood) in the backyard that seem to be doing alright. Although I don't know how long ago they were planted so I can't tell for sure.
At the very least we're going to have to rethink all of our vegetable gardening ideas. Now they'll probably be raised beds on the opposite side of the yard (that would be the north side of the house sadly). Maybe with some kind of barrier between the existing soil and what we add to the raised bed. That'll work for vegetables. I'm not sure what we'll do with the ten flowering trees we're going to get for joining the Arbor Day Foundation.
Sigh....
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