Gardens: training fruit trees

A trained fruit tree is the very essence of gardening. We take a wild, free-form thing and bend it to our will, making it into pretty shapes that fit man-made structures: walls, border edgings and walkways. Training branches into fans and espaliers slows and controls the flow of sap through them, and that leads to slower, tougher growth. This fully ripened wood produces more flower buds than the softer growth of untrained trees, so this act of creativity and control plays to the tree's strengths, coaxing out more fruit. Form and function, art and utility. The practice may have originated in the gardens of those grand enough to employ gardeners – all that bending and shaping takes time and skill – but it is also a handy way of fitting something beautiful and productive into the smallest garden. I have two in mine. The peach tree grows against a west-facing wall, which is sunny for most of the day and into summer evenings, and so holds heat that helps to ripen these borderline fruits. My fan-trained cherry is against a south-facing fence, covered with blossom in spring, then draped in glossy red baubles in summer. Both demonstrate another benefit to training fruit trees: it makes them easy to protect. Peach trees often get ripped out after a few years as they suffer from peach leaf curl, a fungal disease borne on early spring rain which can be circumvented by protecting from rain at the key moment: easy if it's trained against a wall, tricky if it's freestanding. Likewise, cherries get eaten by birds unless you protect them in midsummer, and an untrained tree is a beast to tackle with a net. Planting and care Now is the ideal time to buy bare-rooted trees, grown in the field and lifted once the leaves have dropped. They are cheaper and establish faster than container-grown shrubs, but are available only from leaf fall until the first buds appear. Price is a major consideration. The training of these trees takes several years and time is money. I bought mine pre-trained and forked out a good £50 a plant. You can train them yourself – though you will wait longer for your first harvest. Start with a feathered maiden, a one-year-old tree, cheap as chips, and create a framework along which to train it. Choose a tree that has been grafted on to a dwarfing rootstock, otherwise you will struggle to contain its vigour. Make the tree fit any shape you like, from complex tiers and angles to the simplest of lines: one of the most effective frameworks I've seen was a length of hosepipe used to create an S-shaped pear tree, a great shape for trying your hand at training. Tie the main growing point along the support each summer and keep side shoots short, cutting them back in winter to three shoots to encourage the tough growth that flowers best. This annual care will leave the branches pared back and sculptural in winter, create a flurry of blossoms over bare branches in spring, and see those same shapely but compact limbs festooned with luscious fruit every autumn. Fruit to train against sunny walls Peach, apricot, sweet cherry, eating apple, pear, fig. Fruit to train against shady walls Sour cherry, cooking apple, gooseberry, blackcurrant, whitecurrant and redcurrant. Trained fruit shapes Step-overs A short stem with two horizontal "arms", low to the ground. Great for edging borders or creating boundaries. Espaliers A multitiered step-over. The central stem grows vertically, and side shoots are trained along horizontal wires. Cordons Cordons have one kink near the base and grow at a diagonal angle against a wall. Compact, and you can fit lots of different varieties into a small space. Arches Fruit trees can be trained to create an archway or even a tunnel. Suppliers Brogdale ; Blackmoor Nurseries ; Otter Farm Shop . Tree offer Our maiden fruit tree collection consists of dessert apples 'Braeburn' and 'Cox's Orange Pippin', pear 'Conference' and plum 'Victoria'. Buy one tree for £17.99, or three (the two apples and the pear) for £53.97 and get one free 'Victoria' plum tree (all prices include UK mainland p&p). To order, call 0330 333 6856, quoting ref GUA615, or visit our Reader Offers page. Root-wrapped, bareroot trees supplied from February.