Any suggestions as what to plant up wall?

[purplekat]

Hi,
I've got two spare walls on my stone shed about 6/7 foot high and just over 4foot wide.
I was thinking of having some espalier fruit trees but read they need a 10 foot wide space so need some ideas for what I could have instead.

[Glutton4...]

Which way do they face PK? Ivy will climb up a shady wall/fence, as will many climbers, but the best growth, and flowers of most, will always be on the sunny side!

[Jeanied]

Cordon fruit trees instead? They are planted much closer together.

[binley100]

Grape vine ? or Kiwi ?

[purplekat]

It's east facing and I'm wanting something edible. I'm having cordon fruit trees elsewhere.
Ideally I wanted to grow some kind of plum/damson/cherry as they don't want to be grown as cordons but I think they would need too much room for that spot.

[binley100]

Perhaps you can get one on a dwarfing rootstock I bought a cherry that can be grown in a pot on the patio but ended up putting it in the garden it's not much taller than the garage which is one of those sectional ones .

[Two_Sheds]

the trouble with east-facing is in early spring: if blossoms have frost on them, the early sunlight (it comes from the east of course) damages them. Camellias just go brown, but damaged fruit blossoms won't turn into fruit.

Fruit is better on west-facing walls.

I have an apple espalier, and it doesn't need 10 foot of space, just 10 foot away from another fruit tree. Its roots are barely 2 foot wide (I know, because I just dug it up)

[Two_Sheds]

Just had a thought, and I have a climbing fuchsia up my east-facing wall (Lady Boothby). She's been there 2 years now (through 2 hard winters)

[chris]

What about training it as a fan? Just a bit taller at the top like

[Bigmallly]

Can you train berries or currants against a wall?

[Two_Sheds]

if you fix some trellis up, yes

[Bigmallly]

Hmmmm....I may just try myself...thanks. Bonus is it is southwest facing.

[purplekat]

That's a good point but I think the shed does provide a bit of shelter from the frost. I can always fleece it when it has blossom on

I think I'm going to have a go with a cherry, it's worth a try - think a fushia might be a good idea on the other wall as it's a bit shadier and it'll encourage the bees to come. Thanks fr the ideas everyone

the trouble with east-facing is in early spring: if blossoms have frost on them, the early sunlight (it comes from the east of course) damages them. Camellias just go brown, but damaged fruit blossoms won't turn into fruit.

Fruit is better on west-facing walls.

I have an apple espalier, and it doesn't need 10 foot of space, just 10 foot away from another fruit tree. Its roots are barely 2 foot wide (I know, because I just dug it up)

[FB.]

An espalier fruit tree doesn't need an exact space. They are trained to fit the space available.
Once at full size, they require summer pruning to keep them in their space, so it doesn't matter whether the space is 5ft wide or 15ft wide.

Yours would be a taller, thinner espalier.

Or you could grow them as upright cordons (a.k.a. minarettes).

Or "double-cordons".

Or some kind of in-between shape/size.

With sensible choice of rootstock, variety, and good pruning, you can train them to almost any shape or size you want.

You could probably do it with currants, too.