Espalier trees recommendations

[SmallestSmallholding]

We've got a sunny, fairly sheltered corner of the garden (sort of south-west-west facing) that backs onto 6ft fence and is laid to lawn in front. To the left is a shallow border of lavender and in the corner we've got a very pretty white hibiscus. The border that gets the sun from mid morning until late evening in summer has been bare for 2-3 years and we've been thinking about putting in some espalier trees.

A few years ago the neighbours painted their fence and we've had to look at dark green dribbles down what would have been a very smart-looking fence. We don't really want to start with the upkeep of painting the fence on our side, so we thought about plant-based cover instead!

Ideally I'd like the espalier trees to be productive as well as dribble-covering, but my other half isn't too worried as it's on the flowers rather than veg side of our plot. He's also said he would like something that produces pink blossom (quince?) as we have so much white cherry, apple, sloe and damson blossom in the garden (who'd have thought).

Our biggest challenge is that next door also have espalier trees on their side of the fence... but they barely get any direct sunlight so the trees have been very slow growing. They're only just peeping over the top of the fence.

Would it be too much competition for water/nutrients to put in espalier trees on our side too? Our soil is pretty sandy (we're near the GreenSand Ridge in Bedfordshire) and well draining, especially in this corner of our garden and I don't want to have to keep mulching every year. If espaliers aren't suitable, then we'll think of something else.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

[veggiechicken]

What about a Chaenomeles Japonica Chaenomeles japonica - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vibrant flowers, tough as old boots, edible fruit and trainable against a fence. Only downside is its thorny.

[FB.]

......Our biggest challenge is that next door also have espalier trees on their side of the fence... but they barely get any direct sunlight so the trees have been very slow growing. They're only just peeping over the top of the fence.

Our soil is pretty sandy (we're near the GreenSand Ridge in Bedfordshire) and well draining, especially in this corner of our garden.....

Chances are that your neighbours' espaliers are on MM106 rootstock, which often behaves like a dwarf rootstock in light dry sandy soil unless irrigated.

If you plant espaliers on MM106, most likely they won't do well because of soil nutrient depletion, competition from the neighbours MM106 trees and the soil problem known as 'replant disease'.
If I were planting espaliers, I plant them on the next rootstock size up from whatever your neighbours are using, to give your trees a fighting chance against them.
If your neighbours planted theirs on MM106, I would plant on MM111, which also happens to cope well with competing plants, drought and starvation.
Although books list MM111 as bigger than MM106, they're actually fairly similar in size in good conditions but the MM111 generally does much better in more difficult conditions.

[The Griff]

This is my james grieve Apple I am growing up the fence, it's just flowering now and the flowers are pink.

[SmallestSmallholding]

Thanks all for the suggestions! My neighbours aren't particularly greenfingered so I very much doubt they know what rootstock their trees are, but I would assume given the rate of growth that they're more likely MM106. I'll definitely be looking into stronger rootstocks then and the james grieves look great. Not sure I can find it in the right root stock though that will be able to compete.

I do want to squeeze in a quince somewhere... I'm thinking given that it's thorny it might be better placed somewhere where I want to keep the cats away from the birds! Don't mind so much if the birds have a go at the fruit... as long as we get to have a share...

[FB.]

Most apple buds are various shades of pink, but once the flowers open fully they are mostly white, or white with a slight pink tinge.
There aren't many varieties which have true pink flowers. Brownlees Russet is the only one which comes to mind at the moment.