I’m not sure whether I’ve mentioned the apples trees yet. There are two of them, and they are just little whips right now. Both are heritage or antique apples — Winchester and Virginia Gold — and were originally developed for Virginia’s crazy humid and hot summer climate. Neither is a common variety. In fact, it took some serious searching to track them down.
If you’ve ever tasted either variety, you know the search was worth it.
When I bought this place, I knew I wanted to plant a couple apples along the side of the garage. I’d train them into some espalier form, and they would be beautiful and productive, and their fruit would be delicious. I knew I would need two trees, to ensure proper pollination. And, I knew I wanted something unusual. Something other than a ‘Red Delicious’ or a ‘Granny Smith.’
But, how to choose? There are hundreds — thousands? — of antique apple varieties out there.
Turns out, the choosing was easy: I selected my apple varieties by tasting them.
Last fall, I spent a sunny afternoon at a plant sale at Blandy Experimental Farm, home of Virginia’s State Arboretum. At the plant sale, there was a booth featuring heritage / antique apples. Free tastings! I tried a slice of every variety they offered (a dozen or so), and completely fell for two of them: Winchester and Virginia Gold.
After a long search, I tracked down both varieties at Vintage Virginia Apples, a heritage nursery less than two hours from my house. Sold!
The apples arrived this spring, and have settled happily along the side of my garage. I’m not fussing with them yet. But, I have plans for them. And, I need to start working on those plans soon.
These apples are going to be espaliered apples.
They’re still just whips, with only the hint of branches. So, there’s no need for training quite yet. But, they will be big enough to train soon. So, I’m collecting images on Pinterest, and am spending too much time gazing at the garage, trying to picture the perfect shape for the space.
Because, these trees won’t stay whips forever. And, I can’t wait!
The two trees are a long way from the espalier beauties I'm dreaming of...
What do you think? Have you grown espalier before? Do you have a favorite shape?
Grow your own sweet potatoes 
Your sweet potato questions: Answered! 
What do you want to know about sweet potatoes? 
Sweet potatoes!! 
10 rules for growing vegetables in the front yard 
Sunchokes from store-bought tubers? Hopefully! 
6 vegetables that are super easy to hide from the HOA 
It’s time to harvest sweet potatoes!! 
Weekly garden stroll #11 
Garden stroll #12: Midsummer doldrums 
Baby praying mantis invasion! 
Earth Day, monarchs and the little things 
Garden stroll #16: More snow!!?? Good grief. 
Garden stroll #15: Snow!? 
E-books and experiments 
Here comes spring! 
2013 Warrenton Seed Swap 
It’s time to plant some … birdhouses!? 
Home-grown vs. store-bought: sweet potatoes! 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I adore Espalier! Armed with what I’d seen/read, and a passion/talent for topiary, I once espaliered a Pomegranate on a chain link fence in back of our first house. At the time we lived in a dense little neighborhood on a scant 65×105 lot, so the back of the house was actually just a 5′ access walkway.
It was a gorgeously informal fan shape, persuaded from long neglected nursery stock I’d had the pleasure of perusing. The shrubby little 2-3′ foot Pome had escaped it’s pot and rooted right into the detritus accumulated on the nursery weed-cloth under the rows. The root ball was ripped and hacked, requiring that the medium sized plastic pot be cut and wrestled out of it’s mass prior to planting. Even such invasive root disturbance can have a positive effect on the plant *IF* it loses an equal or greater amount of top growth in the process. I selected healthy, malleable branches in appropriate relationship to one another, pruned off their competitors, and used a couple twist-ties to loosely secure the branches into position. (note: slip a section of 1/4″ drip tubes over garden ties/wire help protect trees from girding and scaring at tie points
The little butchered Pomegranate grew so very fast, especially once it had only a few branches to express itself with. A sinuously informal 5 fingered fan elegantly flowed into gorgeous 3 cordon form. In three years it was 6′ tall and spanned 25′ of fencing at less than 1′ wide, bearing larger fruit each season… until I moved to a different house, (FYI, the Pomegranate successfully moved with me!) but that’s another trip down memory lane, and I’m already rambling on.
Oh, that sounds delightful! If you have any photos of the pomegranate, I’d love to see how it looked. Maybe post one to the Outlaw Garden Facebook page?
And, thanks so much for the tip about using tubing to prevent scarring. This will be a learn-as-I-go thing, and I can use all the help I can get!
Hello! just found your site via avalon organics. How great to find another guerrilla gardener in our area (eastern shore of md).
We moved into our house april 2011 and have espaliered the following:
fig, peach, apples x 5, apricot and pears x 2.
Our “system” is using chain link fencing top-rails as the vertical supports with wire horizontals. So far so good! We’re on a budget but hope to turn our 1/10th acre into an in-town homestead. The espalier is a must since we have so little room.
I look forward to following your progress via facebook.
Cheers
Neoma
Wow! You’ve got a whole espalier orchard! It sounds wonderful. And, your system sounds similar to what I’m thinking of doing this coming spring, when my two little apple trees will be ready for their first pruning: pipe for the verticals, with wire or more pipe for the horizontals. Good to know that general system has worked for someone else!
{ 2 trackbacks }