Grow Fruit In Small Spaces

If you live in a condo, apartment, or area that just doesn't have the room for a full-sized fruit tree, you can always opt to espalier your tree.

Espalier simply means to train trees through pruning and directing growth in order to create a structured form. The technique was popular in the Middle Ages in Europe, although evidence exists suggesting that the technique dates back much farther, perhaps even to ancient Egypt.

This picture is of an espaliered apple tree at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, but you can do the same thing in your garden. You can espalier fruit trees along a wall, on a fence, on wires, or on a trellis.

It's a great way to grow your fruit in a small space, but still be able to enjoy the fruit too.

If you're interested, I just finished a whole tutorial on how to prune apple trees.

Till next week!

Different Uses For A Strawberry Jar

I was planting up a strawberry jar this week, but I wasn't planting strawberries in it. The great thing about having all those different pockets in 1 jar is that you can plant all kinds things. Here are some examples:

Herbs
Flowers
Lettuce
Succulents
and of course, Strawberries

Strawberry jars are great space savers and are perfect for patios or decks.

If you haven't tried one out- do sometime. I'm sure you'll come up with even more uses than I have listed here!