Espalier-ing fruit trees.

A while ago I had my old decrepit fence removed and replaced all wooden posts with concrete ones. Instead of adding fence panels I've decided I would try and fill the space with a living fence. I've always liked the idea of espaliering so this seemed like a perfect fit.

First I attached wooden batons to the posts. It seemed easier than drilling straight to the fence and I've also cheated and just glued them with a polyurethane adhesive.

As you can see the tree was all over the place, getting a bit wild. I gave it a quick trim, repotted it, cut a few of the roots.

I then added eye hooks to the batons.

From googling around the 2.5mm thickness seemed like the best choice so I've ran the steel wire between the hooks.

I then tied the branches to the wire and got to a pretty pleasing shape. I will need to bend a few branches a bit more and prune the ones that don't fit.

The issue is that this is a cherry tree, they're not really supposed to be espaliered so I will have to see what the results will be. In the worst case I will have a good looking living fence that does not fruit as well as it could do; I can live with that. I will fill the rest of the fence as well with other trees that should be better suited for this task, I got a pear tree ready to go, just need to lay more wire.

Cheers!