Chelcass, be aware if you have a mountain lion they are bigger than bobcat, Beautiful face & long tail about 2 ft. on 1 I faced. Maybe I mentioned it on here before but I was going to nursery part of hardware store & noticed large hole in chain link fence, the freeway is right behind it & there is grassy strip so very easy for hungry animals to come into the city from the mountains 1 mile above the store. I was walking & wondered what kind of dog was walking toward me, he had such a long tail, I couldn't see his face as there were some potted plants out in the aisle & he was looking towards area where parents send their kids while they shop. about 100 ft from me he had to go around a pot & I saw his beautiful face & realized it was a wild animal but I wasn't sure what, I backed up but they are very fast & if he wanted me for lunch he could have, it was on anniversary of my hubby's death so was really unsettling, anyway I told them about it & told them I did not want to read about 1 of those kids mauled & killed. The ducks were completely enclosed even top so he would have had to work at getting in. We went out (no kids were there that day)& looked for it(how dumb was that) none of us looked up, they go up in trees.(or roofs etc. & several are sighted every year, 1 in Santa Clarita couple of days later, could have been one I saw. It weighted more than most dogs. Chelcass, you don't want to run into 1. If they are hungry you will be supper! Glad to hear you are green now, that's an improvement!!Jan

Electric fence. Frustrated bears tore my trees up when they were irritated by the electric fence around my bees, now trees and hives are fenced in. I also wrap plastic construction fence around my trees to keep the deer from rubbing, very effective, and lets air to the trunk also. I have also seen hives set on elevated platforms, very effective. And up on electrified flat beds. In my isolated yard, roofing nails nailed with a air gun thru conveyer belt placed around my hives works well also. ,,,DonÂt worry, I love wildlife and only use the shorter ¾ nails. ;>) Here is a link that might be useful: Managing bear damage to beehives

Dorothy, I don't really have an answer for you, but just a couple of observations. Our native black walnut trees are like yours--they produce some nuts but not as many as some other similar trees in the county. Our trees are located on the western third of our property, in a mixed oak-hickory-cedar forest that is badly overgrown. I've often wondered if they'd produce better if they were in a less overgrown/overcrowded area. It is my understanding that the trees are not exactly self-fertile either, so they produce a better nut crop if pollinated by pollen from a different tree. However, even lone trees far removed from a similar tree will produce nuts...just not as many, so they aren't entirely self-sterile either. In our climate, black walnuts often bloom and pollinate in April when late frosts still can occur and can freeze-kill some or all of the flowers/nuts before they get a chance to grow. In general, if a late freeze gets most or all of our native pecans, it also gets most or all of our native black walnuts. And, like native pecans, and as Carol suggested above, their crop size seems highly variable from year to year. I don't know that there is anything you could do to increase the size of the crop. Fertilizing them might help--it sometimes does with native pecans. Dawn

Yes, It's a gamble for sure. I've had some success and many failures. Zone 9, maybe 9b and we've grown and bloomed Anthuriums red and white, mountain azaleas, grew arabica coffee plants to mature red beans before a frost and still have a nice Miracle Fruit bush and have a full pint of red fruit from it when recipes using them are developed.. Failures include but not limited to South American breadfruit grown to 7 feet before a lone 26*F one Winter, also lost a Cacao tree (chocolate) to a single cold morning another Winter. I love to try different plants that don't usually grow here, some don't make it, some do well and some, like the black pepper are in limbo, lacking some factor that's needed for production.