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What to plant in between new fruit espaliers?

espaliernoviceespaliernovice Posts: 7
in Garden design

Hello

I'd love some tips please.

I have two very small plum trees (Czars) recently planted against a NE facing fence that I want to fan-train. They look very small and twiggy at the moment and I'm thinking to plant something either side and in between to improve the look of this very bare looking fence, which looks very bleak every time I look out the window. Any ideas, or should I just be patient for the trees to 'fan-out'? 

I have a similar issue on my W facing fence, where I have a total of 4 apples/pears, all one year into espalier training. Last summer, I planted runner beans in every space between (blimey - we had loads - I learnt from that!), and this winter for lack of space elsewhere, I've just plonked in some onion sets in between. Any ideas for perhaps a slightly longer-term solution for cheering up the fence while these trees grow?

Thank you very much image

Posts

  • a1154a1154 Posts: 1,059

    I think at year 3 mine are in fact too close together, so what you have really is a short term problem. I would probably get something big and evergreen in a pot like a phormium (but I’ve got phormiums everywhere, that’s me)  so you can move them out later. Or something annual that would use the fence like sweet peas. Not sure how far apart your espalier are ? but you won’t have a gap for long. 

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