Espaliered Fruit Trees, Part 1
We're just back from five day
trip through the urban mid-Atlantic states and what do I want to talk
about? Espaliered fruit trees, of course. This photo shows
an
espaliered fig inside the conservatory at Longwood Gardens.
"Espalier" refers to a fruit tree trained against a flat surface,
traditionally a space-saving technique used along the inside of
defensive town walls in the Middle Ages. Nowadays, people just
think they're pretty, and I agree. But as more and more of our
readers begin to create their own mini-homesteads in small urban yards,
I thought it would be worth focussing on espalier techniques for this
week's lunchtime series.
Do you have an espaliered tree? If so, drop me an email with some
photos! If not, stay tuned --- you'll soon be hooked. If
you can't wait until tomorrow, check out this
page's extensive gallery of espalier fruit trees or read this longer
explanation of the benefits of espaliered trees.
Note: "Espalier" is pronounced "i-spal-yer".
| This post is part of our Espaliered Fruit Trees lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries: |
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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