Or fences that grow apples.
Look what we’ve been picking recently! Small, perfectly formed, and just the right size for the Minx’s lunchbox.
I first got the idea to use espaliered apple trees as fences when we visited the tulip festival back in 2007 and they’d used them to fence in the car park.
Here are our two just planted espaliers to the left of the picture below back when the garden was new in August 2007.
That first year they sure did look pretty but the one apple they produced was eaten by our garden squirrel.
This year, however, look what we got.
The extremely cool thing about these espaliers – as you can just about see from the picture above - is that each of the four branches has a different variety of apple on it. The Gala and Granny Smith apples in the top picture both came off the same tree.
I’ve so often wondered why more people don’t do this! It’s such an efficient and elegant way of using space and producing yummy fruit close to hand! Thanks for setting such a clever example.