January 2022

Espaliered Fruit trees are ideal for every garden large or small, from trees 5 ft. wide and 4 ft. tall and larger trees for bigger garden spaces. Your reward is fresh fruit in fall, beautiful flowers in spring and beautiful foliage and eye-catching structure year around. Enjoy easy to reach fruit harvest and tree maintenance, it’s a fun experience for people who love their gardens. You have that hands on experience that all of us enjoy from gardening. In addition to the nursery, we’re very invested in our gardens at home. It’s a time for me and Beth to work together and do the things that we love. Gardening! January is a busy time here at River Road Farms. We’re selecting the trees now that will be trained and available for purchase 3 to 5 years from now, it’s always a guessing game of how many of each of the espalier shapes to train. We hand select 1 year old .5 inch trunk size trees (Bare root or 2 gal containers) and we plant them using pine bark fines as growing media in 15 or 25 gallon containers and move them to their individual in-ground containers in our fields We use the pot in pot growing method so the trees can be safely planted year around. Our main goal is to please you with an espalier that has a beautifully finished shape and is of fruit bearing age at the time you plant it in your garden.

Why not try your hand at training an espaliered tree? It’s great fun and an adventure to work your starter tree into the shape and size that you like best. There are many online sources and books available to help guide you along the way. Best news! If you make mistakes along the way (and we do here at the nursery sometimes) cut your tree back down past the place on it that you don’t like and start over again the following spring when your starter espalier starts to grow again. Never give up!

Contact me, Peter Thevenot, at www.espaliertrees.com if you have any questions.

Have fun and do good!

Peter