Stone mulch

On the advice of a gardening expert, viz my mum, I used some of the stones dug out of my uncle's ground to mulch our new hedges and trees. The idea is to keep the moisture in, and to keep the soil form disturbance by watering.

And by jove, it works. Even on really hot days, instead of turning into a crust and cracking, the soil stays moist around the stones, and the leaves of the trees don't wilt as much as they did before.