Vasili's Garden Episodes
Espalier you own Trees
Do you ever get that feeling that you just seem to be getting bigger and bigger?
You try to stick to a diet, exercise regularly and have kept smoking and drinking completely out of bounds.
Then after a few weeks, you do a routine inspection by checking yourself out in the mirror.
Hmm… Don’t look too bad you think to yourself.
Then someone you know maybe a family member or a friend invites you over to see their new home and ‘bam’ it happens again.
I don’t know about you but every time I walk into a new home, I get that weird feeling, it’s either I’m turning into a giant or these properties are getting smaller.
Just the other day I was invited to inspect a garden, the owners wanted some gardening ideas on what to plant where, what type of mulch to use etc.
Sure the house was beautiful, but as soon as we walked out into the back garden I nearly bumped my wonderful Greek nose on their back fence!
I couldn’t believe it!
They were lucky to have 2mtrs between the back of their house and the rear fence which was actually the neighbour’s garage wall, and then I looked up to see where the sun was shining but it was nowhere to be seen.
Once upon a time, long, long time ago, new houses weren’t allowed to cover any more than 40 or 50% of the total property area, well doesn’t that sound like a fairytale?
Nowadays, you’d be lucky to have 20% of the property left for garden space.
How is any family supposed to live a healthy lifestyle in these sorts of conditions?
Forget about kicking a ball in the back yard and as far as flowers and veggies are concerned, good luck.
But wait!
Just recently I met someone who has been working hard to solve these planting problems and I think we might have a solution.
For the past 10 years Chris England has been training plants to grow flat as a tack, against walls, fence lines, along wires, you name it he’ll grow it, flat that is.
It’s called Espalier, the art of growing any type of plant you could image in a two dimension, and all you need is a wall, a fence or even some horizontal wires fixed to a couple of posts and the rest is up the pruning and shaping.
Espaliering is an art in itself but not a very difficult one to develop, the aim is to keep the plant’s growth flat so there’s no bushing out or canopy created, and there’s no limit to what type of plant you can espalier either.
Chris had lemons, oranges, mandarins, olives, apples and even pear trees espaliered, and for those ornamental plant lovers, he even had some camellias, magnolias and Lilly Pillies too.
There are two forms of espaliering, the formal type which requires the plant to be trained along horizontal wires and then there’s informal espaliering where the plant is clipped back and tied onto lattice.
Either way this is a great way to fill in those dreaded narrow garden beds with plant varieties that you probably would never have imagined growing.
And guess what?
Espaliering actually helps the plants to produce more flowers and fruit too!
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