When garden space is limited, espaliers and archways are a welcome solution.
David White
A tree’s natural form is perfect, evolved to perform optimally within its original habitat. Most people know Joyce Kilmer’s poem: “I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree.” But just as poems sometimes need editing, so, too, do gardens. For centuries gardeners have looked for ways to transform those perfect trees into forms better suited to our environments.
With the size of our gardens diminishing, the orchards of our grandparents have been removed to make way for an increasingly urban population. Although we might feel nostalgic about the old quarter-acre, in truth smaller gardens and higher-density living are a more sustainable existence.
It’s the pinch on space that often forces the best design solutions, in my view. When it comes to the contemporary urban garden, we do not need to reinvent the wheelbarrow. Instead, we have a rich history of tried and varied techniques to call on to create attractive and productive spaces. After all, it’s more cunning to prune a plant in such a way that helps to enhance and define a space, as well as improve productivity, than to plant it haphazardly and leave it to grow untrained to become a bother in the future.
Espalier is the art of training trees, either flat against a wall or free-standing to a pattern. The traditional shapes are “fanning” (where the branches are spread at even angles) or “coppicing” (where the branches are trained evenly and horizontally). More sophisticated patterns, such as hearts, involve crisscrossing or coaxing branches into the centre.
Originally, plants were grown west to east to optimise sun exposure and therefore the growing season, but as the technique developed into an art, the method became popular in Victorian walled gardens. Plants such as peaches were grown this way, with lean-to shelters overhead and sometimes furnaces behind the walls to add warmth and encourage production. As whimsy has taken flight, the same methods of pruning trees to such unnatural forms have seen them trained to be garden seats, or archways at the entrance to a garden.
I would love to have my own garden folly sculpted from trees, with a plaited roof that blossomed in spring, dripped with fruit in summer and displayed a woven lacy skeleton in winter. To develop a living structure such as this, you need a good decade before it starts to really take shape. If the thought of having to wait 10 years to get your garden looking great has you turning the page, don’t despair. You can achieve the beginnings of a simple archway if you start with tall specimens.
In Europe, specialty nurseries mean you need not wait. On a recent visit to London, I was envious of the large pleached mature plants available. They have 1.8m-high stems and a spread of at least two metres, so early satisfaction is guaranteed.
Covered in blossoms, a pair of heart-shaped espalier caught my eye. I have a talent for seeking out the most expensive items in any store, but fortunately these (as rumour had it) were already on their way be part of a fairy-tale wedding in Westminster Abbey, so I didn’t have to ask the price. Instead, I stole a snap for my scrapbook. It is nice to know, though, that fashionable young couples are indulging in the same garden fantasies as me.
Over the next few months, new stocks of deciduous fruit trees will be arriving in garden centres. If you have young existing trees, now is the start of the pruning season, so it’s an opportunity for shaping of any sort. Although espalier is an art requiring patience as far as the results are concerned, it is not a labour-intensive job, requiring just a few hours’ attention at pruning time. In fact, the slower growing the variety of tree, the less often you will need to pull out the secateurs.
To create a basic espalier, select plants with limbs that have a tendency towards the form you want.
The perfect specimen has a strong central leader, with two low even branches that are still green and easily bent to create the first layers of your espalier.
Even if you’re planting it against a wall, you will need a wire or some kind of frame on which to tie the limbs until they become hardwood. Tie the selected branches to the strings in your desired form and remove any branches that are growing towards you. Along the branches, prune any side shoots so they have about three buds remaining.
Each season, as the main central leader grows upwards, repeat the process with the branches that will give you even spacing.
If the plant is not producing on one side and you wish to create a symmetrical shape, making a small cut above a bud in the direction you wish it to grow will trick the plant into sending out a strong shoot. The cut in the bark makes the plant think the upper stem has died and so it puts its effort into creating a strong new stem that can be trained to suit.
For the less ambitious, a garden arch can be created simply by planting two rows of trees and tying the tops together with old stockings.
A fancier version can be created by playing around with different sorts of braids. This is most effective with deciduous varieties because in winter the bare trees reveal the pattern.
Wherever a structure is required in the garden, consider whether a framework of trees could be a suitable substitute for bricks and mortar or timber and rail. Imagine a streetscape of braided fruit trees across suburbia. If it’s good enough for a fairy-tale wedding, it’s good enough for a commoner like me.