The Walnut Tree

This photograph shows the latest addition to my garden, inspired by the ‘how to grow’ part of Tuesday’s episode: Lucy and The Weed Trust. I met Lucy towards the end of last year in Victoria Park, where she was surveying an urban orchard as part of her MSc, trapping beetles and identifying bees. For her plant story we had to go back to 6 year old Lucy and the summer that she spent designing a logo, writing a newsletter and putting together a welcome pack for The Weed Trust - to support the unloved flowers in the garden. Her mum and her mum’s best friend became members!

The new addition to my garden

Her love of weeds was matched by her curiousity and love of insects too. She got her first detention for leading some of her fellow primary school pupils to the out of bounds part of the playground to stroke the bees on the lavender bush. She recalls having woodlice in her pockets - “a must have accessory” and I loved her memory of finding a snail on her first day in Disneyland - captured on the family camera!

So perhaps it wasn’t so surprising that she grew up to be an urban ecologist and storyteller. I love that these plant stories bring me into contact with so many knowledgeable and passionate people. Together Lucy and I spent the most lovely morning with Benny Hawkesbee in the Eden Nature Garden in Clapham and as they lifted tree stumps and Lucy squealed with delight at finding beetles and tiny frogs in the earth beneath them, I saw how they see gardens in a very different way to the controlled, lawn mown to within an inch of its life, ivy cut down, weeds irradicated way that some gardens are treated.

And so to the ‘how to grow’ part of the podcast. I wondered what weed Lucy would choose?

“It might be a bit abstract, but fungus, you know, as an ode to that grub that I saw and I squealed and I grabbed because I loved it so much, under that tree stump, you know, there's so much life there. So stick a tree stump or a lump of wood in a green space and let the fungi grow and let the wood decay. Maybe it's the opposite of growing, you know, let it die and decay and see what happens. Does that work?”

After my time with Lucy and Benny I thought it most definitely worked and as it happened I knew where there was a tree stump that I could put in my garden. Growing up as a child there was an enormous walnut tree in our garden that had been planted by my father. A tree elf called Horatio lived in the walnut tree and all through my childhood I can remember dad telling us stories about Horatio. Dad had a bit of a running battle with the grey squirrels over the nuts, which the squirrels usually won! In the end dad began making pickled walnuts so he could at least get a little of the harvest since you pickle them when they are still green and haven’t yet formed the shell.

When dad died in 2017 the walnut tree also died. Then in 2024 it fell, making a bit of a mess of the neighbours fence and so it was cut into chunks and it is one of these that you see in the photograph. Already I can see how it catches the early morning light and it is so special to have a part of dad’s walnut tree in my garden and who knows, maybe Horatio is there too.

In other news if you happen to live within easy travelling distance of London, I would so recommend the Soil exhibition at Somerset House. I spent three hours there at the weekend. It is absolutely fascinating and I think you will come away viewing soil in a whole new light. There are so many stories, facts and photographs about what is going on beneath our feet where ‘more than half of the world’s organisms live - many of them fungi’.

In podcast news, I spent 3 hours this morning recording episodes for April which will I think tie in very well with the seed sowing time of year. With 992 downloads in February we didn’t quite reach the magical number of 1000 though we would have had it been a leap year! So please do continue to share the podcast with friends and family and consider rating and reviewing an episode if you have enjoyed it.

Have a lovely weekend

Sally

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