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tried this last year and it worked a treat..i have 4 fruit trees ,trained as espaliers and as they are by the side of the drive,not against a wall,i have 2x2ins posts @ 4ft either side of each tree with long bamboo canes going between them across the plant to train the tree.as the ground in between each set of posts was never used i planted some climbing french beans at the base of each post and trained them up,the plant scrambled over the apple tree(max height 7ft) giving us the flowers,then the beans,but ive never seen so many small birds in the area,we had no aphid problem at all and we had great crops from the beans which trailed along the bamboo,making the picking easier than a wigwam or a row of beansticks,i will give it another go this year and then move them onto somewhere else next year etc,give the ground a rest,it does look funny though,with the boughs covered with beans and red apples seeming to pop up at random. if i do this each year,moving round,it frees up a complete bed for something else,its got to make sense..
