Walnut Trees

Are they black or are they Persian? That is the question. Unfortunately I didn't think to take the field guide outside until it was already dark. I only picked some leaves and male flowers from each of the two trees. I seem to remember the previous owner telling us one of the trees was a black walnut, but I remember that I didn't like the taste of the black walnuts I sampled as a child and I like the nuts from both of our trees. Also, I lived on the central coast of California and according to the field guide, the black walnut trees are found on the East Coast and California walnut trees tend to be Persian or Carpathian. Can anyone tell by these slightly wilted leaf pictures what kind of walnut trees they came from. I have labeled them A and B for the sake of reference.

Other than fussing about identifying these trees, I actually did some useful garden tasks today. I dug a nice home for my angelica transplant and transplanted it. Then I remembered the cats, who would love the nice freshly dug dirt. I dropped a bit of red pepper flakes around the plant and then remembered the deer. I didn't want to spray the angelica itself with Liquid Fence, so I pulled a few weeds that were nearby and sprayed them and put them around the plant as mulch. I also transplanted a couple of very small thyme plants that were very tiny but outgrowing their peat pellets. I've been taking a risk dividing the pellets before transplanting, since each has about 5-7 baby plants. Since the ones I transplanted this way Sunday survived, I tried it again. I hate killing off the extra plants. I also did some weeding and put down a few more newspapers to block the weeds from coming back near the borders.

I'm pleased to see that several borage seeds have sprouted, and also a few calendula, lots of poppies, and some dill have reseeded in this bed which is in view of my kitchen window and which I refer to as my herb garden. It's actually the second herb garden. The first one is on the hill. In fact, I don't think I have any planted area without at least one or two herbs in it.