There had finally been a number of dry days in a row. The ground in a certain spot had dried out sufficiently. No more little pond, just a partially dug hole laced with large roots. Yesterday, I went down to the hole, the plum tree’s hole, and I hacked into it. After quite some time, some sawing, some digging, some chopping, some hacking, some intense small child management including the plum tree almost getting sawn… The plum tree was planted!
It had been waiting in its planter for so long, and I had been waiting for the ground to dry out for so long, that I don’t know which of us is more relieved. It is so great to get it planted before the full-on heat of summer. Now we have two Billington plum trees in the ground. And some very large pieces of root lying around. That’s what I get for stubbornly wanting a hole dug beside a stump.
The ground around it has been leveled out a bit and mulched with a lot of sticks from the compost area, which had been pulled out of the compost to speed things up. So many sticks. And I still need more mulch on this garden bed. I also potted up the blackcurrant cuttings that I had stuck into a mound nearby and beside the blackcurrant bushes in the Maple Tree Garden. I potted up the ones that had rooted the best, which I will sell.
The next moves for the Plum Tree Garden are to plant out the rest of the ornamentals that have been waiting and move the blueberry bush. I just don’t know where to put the blueberry yet. This was a temporary home for it. I want more blueberry bushes but I just can’t decide where to put them. The site needs to be somewhere where I can keep the soil acidic for them and somewhere where their tallness won’t be a problem. Under the cedar tree would be good, because of the acidic conifer needles, but being in the chicken pen would not be good, because of the pilfering chickens. I am currently contemplating two spots: along the fence outside the Cedar Pen or in the next raised bed stages of the Great Vege Garden Expansion Plan. Just thinking about this had me out there with some string, wooden stakes and a measuring tape…
Wild Hope Homestead 
The garden that I want to work on is only a few miles away, but I need a vehicle with four wheel drive to get there. Much of what I grow there is just stock plants, such as stock fig trees that provide cuttings for other sunnier gardens. They will not actually do very well in that particular garden because it is too shaded, but they make plenty of good stout cuttings! The items that I want to get into the ground should be planted before the rain starts. We have had only two storms so far, but it is that time of year. I want to plant blue elderberries, especially since they are quite happy in the shade, and will be productive right there. Later on, if the figs get relocated, I would not mind if that entire garden were just blue elderberries and maybe a few other types. I do not often admit it, but I plants some of the pretties there too, such as pink jasmine (in the sunnier spot), brugmansias, yellow jasmine and alstroemerias.
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I need to remind myself what time of year it is sometimes. We are all in such diverse places. It looks like your plum tree already has fruit on it! This really is quite late to be planting it. Well, I know how it is when we can not do something on their schedule. I need to start mine sooner than later, but I can not drive up to the garden because the vehicle that goes up there is not operational.
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Yes, it is much later than I’d hoped to plant it, but it could be worse! If only the weather would listen to me. How far away is your garden?
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