Today was mostly spent getting the mulberry ('Jerusalem') in the ground. We had to take down a hawthorn that occupied the spot (we didn't feel it was earning its keep, and it was rather prominent), which was straightforward. Digging the hole went reasonably well, until I uncovered two massive stones: one about 250kg, the other about 100kg. Eventually, we managed to drag them down the hill to the boundary (using fence posts as sleds), where the bigger will hopefully form a bridge over the ditch, and the smaller will be incorporated into the wall as I rebuild it.
Once they were out of the way, we followed the same protocol as before: big hole, incorporate compost, ensure there's good drainage with a ditch leading out, and then a square metre of weed-membrane on top. An eight-foot post and 35cm diameter chicken-wire cage completes it. We'll water it in for the next week, to help it establish, but it's looking good.
I then made a wooden planter trough that will sit on top of the (somewhat pointless) gravel bed outside the workshop door, on the back patio. There's nowhere near enough soil for anything to grow, but with an extra 30cm deep, 30x170cm trough, we'll have somewhere to plant three goji berries we bought in January last year, and which have been consigned to pots since. We'll give the wood a coat of fence paint on the inside, and line it with plastic.
Yesterday was a day in the kitchen garden: weeding, turning the compost bins (almost full), cutting down fruited raspberry canes to make space for the new canes (next year's crop), lifting the rest of the onions (which went in in mid-May: Rumba, Fen Early, and Red Fen). They're now in the woodstore, on racks, to dry off.
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