Black Walnut Guilds to Share

Thought we'd share a few pictures of some existing black walnut tree guilds that we've just sneaked in before the cold dormancy soon ahead. Here is what went into the ground around 1 great looking tree (01) and 1 not so great looking tree (02) which I think was hit by a car, tractor or snow machine:

Black Walnut (existing)

[outermost]  - Sambuca Canadensis  & Ribes Rubrum

[innermost] - Allium senescens var. glaucum, Allium cernum, Pycnanthemum virgianum, Pycnanthemum muticum, Monarda Raspberry Wine

[Bulbs - all over the place]  - Crocus Sativus, Crocus Vernus Joan of Arc, Crocus vernus Pickwick, Crocus tommasinianus Ruby Giant, Crocus chrysanthus Snow Bunting, Narcissus 3-4 varieties

This is my edible experiment. have some topsoil to place tomorrow but I think these are almost done and all species are pretty '5a' hardy and raised locally.

The other existing trees I need to guild are 6 unidentified apple trees - small, maybe 2 yrs. in the ground,  spaced well enough but not in my OCD taste, but we'll make it work.  I feel like I need to know what they are to assist in pollination but I see nothing to identify them other than the leaves....

I'm curious to hear how they do!

I underplanted a large black walnut with willow, hazel, and black raspberries this year. I was trying to create a windbreak along a fence.

The Willows came close to dying, except for one that is a native willow hybrid, which still did poorly. I have relocated them. They grew vigrously for the first month or so, and then as they used up the soil in their original pots and hit the juglone of the native soil they started to die. The Hazel's did not grow - two disappeared, I presume eaten by a rabbit, one survived but did not grow. Will see how it does next year. The black raspberries also did not grow. It was such a bad drought this year, I'll give both another year to see if they just needed more water. I also planted eastern white cedar cultivars which have again, not grown much but look perfectly healthy.

Turns out the 01 Black Walnut tree is about 60 feet from my favourite tree on the property - a Corkscrew Willow. Both of these trees (this Walnut and Corkscrew) were overcome by riverbank grape vine, so in the course of liberating them, I decided on the Black Walnut Guild. There are native Black Raspberries adjacent to the 01 black walnut and the 02 black walnut. I'm hoping these plants are tolerant enough... as you experienced, we purchased the guild plants at the local nursery down the road, but they have probably not been exposed to the Juglone yet. Time will tell but please cross your fingers for us. We purchased on a discount, and late season, but I'd sure like to see the mints, and the alliums thrive... and excited for the bulbs in spring!