There hasn’t been much rain recently so the little plum trees need watering. The clay soil gets so compact that it won’t absorb water well at all. I’ve settled on giving each tree one watering can’s worth of water, but I have to portion it out slowly, or it will just run off without reaching the tree. So I water one tree until the water puddles around the tree, then walk around the house to do the same to the other tree on the other side, and back and forth like that until they’re both properly soaked.

Some kind of force had torn down the anti-gnaw protection around the tree, so now I tied them in place with string.