black walnuts

Are there any other gardeners out there that dislike black walnut trees as much as I do? We have cut down quite a few black walnut trees on our own property, but are still surrounded by many more of them. Every fall the trees drop black walnuts in our yard and on the road in front of our house.  You can hear the loud  'pop, pop, pop, pop' of the shells being crushed as the cars drive over them. It sometimes sounds like a machine gun!

Black Walnut Positives:

• We filled and donated several buckets of black walnuts to our local Community Hunger Task Force Garden.
• Occasionally people who drive by stop and ask if they can gather walnuts; we are more than happy to oblige.
• The crows like to eat the nut meats.
• Our neighbor down the road is a wood-carver. After we cut one of our trees down we gave him the choice wood for carving. Now I have a beautiful black walnut bowl that he made for us as a thank you. I love black walnut trees in bowl form :)
• Another one of our neighbors used the rest of the wood for winter fuel.

Black Walnut Negatives:

• Don't step on them; you can easily twist your ankle.
• Juglone toxicity can affect certain perennials that are close by.
• Black walnuts stain sidewalks, driveways, chairs -- just about anything. Anyone who has touched or held a black walnut casing knows what I'm talking about. Ugh!
• On hot, humid days entire walnuts have been pressed into the asphalt of our driveway if a car rides over them.
• Walnuts + lawnmower = dulled blades
• You can be hit on the head by the falling walnuts (especially on a windy day). I have a small flower bed not too far from black walnut tree branches that hang over our yard. In the fall when I work in that particular garden I wear a bike helmet -- seriously!
  
• Right now the squirrels are burying black walnuts everywhere. Consequently, in spring I have to dig out dozens of baby walnut trees that are growing in my flower garden. The squirrels outnumber me for sure, and *they* have nothing else to do all day. Walnut trees roots are tough to dig out, even when the they are tiny! Call me annoyed.