Living Fruit arches

[veggiechicken]

WARNING - this is not for the purists - my non-conventional methods may cause distress!

I've been playing about with the fruit trees for a few years now - trying to link them together by interweaving their branches at just above head height. So far I have joined 5 apple trees with their neighbours and am hoping to join a 6th this year.

Obviously, pruning is a bit more challenging ----------which is why I don't do it. Just taking out the twigs that annoy me.

I've taken a few photos but its not easy to see them as a whole. When the trees are in leaf, its like a tunnel , but you can't see the meshing of the branches then.







It makes it easier for me to pick the apples and the crop last year was overwhelming. Its a bit like festooning without the dangling ends.

[veggiechicken]

I'm also joining two plum trees together but this is a bit more artificial as I've had to put "arches" in to give them the idea.

[veggiechicken]

Found a photo from last year - in case you think they stop fruiting!

[SarrissUK]

Wow that's lovely VC! I'm a sucker for an arch or four. Lovely

[veggiechicken]

Another photo - the tunnel effect last June.

[Scarlet]

That's lovely VC! Very jealous

I went to an open garden
Last year and they had a laburnum tunnel. It was fabulous.

[Small pumpkin]

Sorry VC, I'm stealing that idea and technique
That looks fabulous
I've never mastered the art of fruit tree pruning, so I don't. Like you, I just cut off bit that annoy me .
It might take a few years before I can copy you. I'm taking cuttings from my plum trees this year.
Have you managed to root fruit tree cuttings ? ( sorry I know that's one of your other threads )


I'm thinking a plum tree arch entrance to the veggie garden !

[veggiechicken]

Re Cuttings, I stuck some peach tree cuttings in the ground a few months ago and they're all flowering!! Don't know what their roots are like.

The easiest way to create a tunnel is with the long cane fruits like loganberries but the old canes need cutting out each year and the new ones tying in. I do that too
Grapes are another option.

With my apple trees, I didn't plant them with this idea in mind. It just happened because I wanted a way to keep the fruit at pickable height.

[fishpond]

Another photo - the tunnel effect last June.

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Words fail me, you just want to walk through it, very very slowly.
It is a word I rarely use, but it is beautiful, no, it is more than that.

[veggiechicken]

Thanks Bob. Any time you're down this way, you're welcome to go for a walk!

Because there are 5 trees, each in their own little bed, they're linked together across the central path, and sideways as well so you can walk in several directions and still be in a "tunnel". It complicated to explain and the photos don't help!!

[Nicos]

What another fantastic, and logical idea VC!

Love it!

I did something similar with some thornless brambles planted about 4feet from some trellis work ( hiding the compost bins) basically so I could get underneath to access weeding and also pruning of a rose scrambling along the trellis.
A road to nowhere really but it felt nice ducking underneath instead of scrambling my way through!

[Babru]

Ideal to make the fruit easy to pick. My mum had a big conference pear, fruited well but mostly so high up we never got any. This is a much better idea.

[Snadger]

I believe that by bringing the branches closer to the horizontal they will create more fruiting spurs which will make them more fruitful as well?

[Lady BlackThumb]

Smeagol wants thisssss.

That looks absolutely amazing! Must be gorgeous when it's in bloom!

[veggiechicken]

Duhh! What's a Smeagol?