I need some advice.
I have 2 large black walnut
trees that do a beautiful job of shading my house while still providing
enough light penetration to let me grow some things under them. As soon as I moved in I acquired 2 large rain barrels, and built a small
swale through the middle of the
yard with the intent of feeding the excess rainwater into it. Once everything leafed out however, I realized that juglones from the leaves and catkins were leaching into my rainbarrels and contaminating the
water.
If I
feed this water into the swale it will contaminate the ground all the way through my yard, not just under the walnuts! I have read that most of the juglones run down the bark of the tree during a rain, and drip off the leaves. Does anyone know if a first flush system might get rid of a large portion of them and then I could more safely collect the water after that?