Something a little more organic this time, to relieve the technology based posts of late.
After seeing some espalier olives in the local nursery the other week I decided that the north wall of our sunroom would be a good place for some of our own. There’s something I like about trained bushes and trees, like Bonsai for example. The application of this to a fruit tree seemed like a good idea here. The space is very narrow and would normally not be suitable for any plants really, unless they were very small, so the espalier should work well.
I love olives too of course, but I’m not holding out for a harvest. I have read up a little on pickling olives and it is clearly a long and tricky process. If we get a good harvest in few years time I may give it a go. I’ll make a post or two here if i do.
The soil was added to with our latest compost mix from pile number 1 (of 6, watch for a post on the compost system!) and mounded up to give the new trees a good chance of getting going. It’s been a warm, wet autumn but it is getting a bit late to be planting new trees. The mound was covered over with chicken wire to keep it together, and, I thought, to keep the chooks off. However, Sheryl recommended that I put up another fence to keep them out as they would get in there despite the cover wire.
olives behind the chook proof fence
The frame for the espalier is just a couple of star pickets and old wire strung at close intervals between.
Materials here show off our scrounging skills well. Long star pickets @ $1 each from the local dump shop, tie wire left over from other jobs, dog fence wire and short picket picked up off the side of the road, having been dumped illegally by someone just past the nursery where we bought the olive trees. We couldn’t make use of the old couch, so had to leave that for someone else to clean up!
espalier frame for olives
The frame reaches reasonably high, but may need extending if the trees grow to my planned 6 foot height, just below the sunroom windows. It’s sort of like living art to fill a blank canvas. Hope they last the hot summers.
sunroom wall for olive espalier
Brian.