espalier training

The summer vegetable garden ended a couple weeks ago with just basil and jalapeno peppers left. As much as I enjoyed my garden space by the house along the walk, I felt I could use this space better.

It is an odd shaped garden area that is squeezed between a walkway and patio. The tomatoes quickly overwhelmed the area and made walking around them difficult.

The former garden space is inspired by a fig that I have planted in a pot that has been waiting for me to find just the right place.  It has a sprawling growth that just begs to be trained into an espalier and who am I to argue with the willful inclinations of plants. (ignore the bricks, I am using them as a temporary guide for future flower beds)

This weekend we started on building the espalier frame for the fig to be trained on. Another piece of inspiration for the espalier was some fancy iron work that I purchased at a yard sale over four years ago. It was originally a queen size headboard and when we moved, I salvaged just the scrolling iron work and it has been sitting in my garage waiting for the perfect project.

Here is how we used it

We still have work yet to do, like staining and attaching brackets for hanging plants on each side. And planting the fig tree.

I think it will be perfect for the fig tree and there will still be room around the bottom for some herbs and pepper plants.

More pictures to follow as I progress with this project, the humidity limits the time I can work out in the garden.  Soon there will be a break in the weather and fall gardening will be right around the corner.

Comments

[Leslie]

A Florida garden looks so different from a CA garden. I really miss Michigan during gardening season, where you could just throw seeds down and have gorgeous plants in a few weeks. Here in dry old CA, we have to *work* at gardening. I love the iron on top of the frame. What a perfect spot. Looks great already and you don't have anything on it yet. Looking forward to the weather break here also.

[Julie]

PVD-I love love LOVE it!!

[Marit]

Now I know for sure: your hands are green! A nice, deep, gorgeous, living green!!!

[Debra]

Beautiful gardens~and I LOVE the fig and its iron support. You have a great eye for repurposing neat stuff!

[Jean Hawkins]

I love your frame for the fig tree! It makes me think of a long ago very early spring trip to France where we saw people working to train all their fruit trees on frames like this (although not nearly so beautiful!) It makes for easy picking. The fruit always looks so pretty at eye level, just begging to be tasted. Your fig tree will be lovely there!

[Bobbie Duran]

Love your garden photos. Good luck with your figs. I love figs and would like to have them in my yard, but the parrots and other critters would just have a filled day with them.