To me, the bigger question is why is this black walnut seedling the only one? Since you have a tree that produces nuts, I would expect you to be so tired of digging up all the black walnut starts..and for most of the year, since here I notice the new ones spring and summer, but eventually by fall I find the sneaky ones that hid from me earlier in the season. My 'across the street and down one house garden' had one of the largest BW trees around until recently ( many of us are sad it ended up having to go ). Such a beautiful tree. But the darn nuts the squirrels forgot still are a neighborhood pest. This is the third or fourth year post-BW tree and while I'm getting fewer than before, there are still enough I do an eye-roll and a sigh as I go for the spade. Regular weeding tools don't go deep enough, you have to get all the way down to where the nut was planted. If you have whacked at any of these seedlings repeatedly with just a sturdy weeder, the problem only becomes a much bigger project getting rid of monster,, twisted, deep root. The ninebark is a beautiful plant, one you paid good money for and have invested time and effort towards. BW seedlings are a dime a dozen and grow FAST! Personally I would look around a bit more and find a different seedling. If that fails, and you are the tidiest gardener ever, after you come over and help me try to keep up with the garden ;) , you can plant some nuts this fall, then pick the one that is truly outstanding in the group to save for your future tree. Seems like that tree would be the winner in many ways and you can say I started this as a nut ! Be sure to take a picture of the nut for the baby book. Just think how the size of the new BW tree will be in family photos over the years. :) This post was edited by plaidbird on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 2:49

It's going to be interesting here.......the temperature forecasts change as often as the peso to dollar. We have extensive plantings in trees/shrubs/flowers/fruits/vegetables. Far too many to ever even think about protecting. I have ten or twenty types of shrubs in bloom now. An extraordinarily lovely fruit set this year for peaches and apples. Blueberries almost sized up. Strawberries starting to turn red. Brambles all in bloom. Grapes starting to get little bunches on them with new vines planted. sigh. I spent all day on the veggie garden. I put it in three weeks later than last year, and just finished the plantings (all but the melons) yesterday. Guess who saddled up at ten this morning haying in the rows of potatoes so I wouldn't get foliage die-back. Hot capping tomatoes. Covering the cukes and beans who are already budded and about to flower. I did also cover the strawberry bed. It's each man for his own now and keeping fingers crossed that they'll be off a few degrees too high. I am a serious food producer.......flowers can come again next year, but I have an empty pantry to fill and I sure as ..........don't want to have to replant everything.

We've been similar to last summer so far - slightly less rain but still near/above normal, and warm, but not oppressive - we've been running a bit above average but no 100+ temps and only a handful of 90+. It's been quite humid, and even though we've had a couple 2-week stretches with little rain, soil moisture is pretty good. We are in a good pattern of storms every few days, some with smaller totals but a good 1"er every 10-20 days or so with smaller amts in between. Should end up about 4" or a bit over for June. As far as drought, the East Coast as a whole seems to be low-risk per what I've read, but a short-term dry spell or 'D0' situation is always a possibility even in a "non-drought" year. Last summer - we went from wet to dry almost overnight around mid July - by Sept 1 crops were wilting (although it happened late enough that most crops yielded OK) and lawns brown, but the local forecast gurus kept denying a drought was imminent...then suddenly they acknowledged it when the US Drought Monitor maps showed most of MD and N. VA in "D0" (abnormally dry) status. Then, as fast as it happened, we got 6" of rain over a few days in early October. Ended the year about 4-6" above normal in 2013. This post was edited by hairmetal4ever on Fri, Jun 27, 14 at 12:41

Thank you! Yes the property has so much to offer - it's very park-like, almost a full acre within city limits... good spacing between neighbors, and lots of trees. As far as a vision... the only thing I'm really envisioning is using the sideyard as some sort of walk-through (i.e. paths and various points of interest) cottage/cutting garden. I have a "sort of" plan I sketched on a dinner napkin not too long ago. The rest of the property is really lovely the way it is, so I probably won't do too much. And yes, I DO expect to be losing sanity a little at a time. LOL In fact, I think I left some of it among the stones of my rock wall!