What is up everyone? Welcome back to the show. Today we are going to talk about Espalier specifically for fruit trees.

So if you've ever wanted to grow fruit specifically in a small urban space like the one that I'm growing in,

you might think, I just can't. There's just not a way for me to do it. Well, it's possible.

It's not possible, you know, compared to maybe living on a permaculture farm or something like that, but there is a way to do it and one of the ways that you can do it is called Espalier. This is a term from French as you might

imagine. It comes from the French word espau meaning a prop and that references

the trellis that supports the branches. It may have also been partially derived from the Italian term

Spalliera, which means something to lean the shoulder against. So Espalee as a method has been used to create

low walls, a lattice type pattern foliage, and best of all, these

flat growing fruit trees that can actually live along a fence line. So it can actually take a lot of time to train a tree or shrub to create that effect that you're aiming for.

However, once you can do it, it is extremely rewarding.

So where did this really take shape? Where did Espalee as a method come from?

While ornamental gardening was common throughout the middle ages including topiary art,

however these Espalee fruit trees and other forms became

widespread at some point during the Renaissance. So when we look at

tapestries from the Renaissance period of

to time to become a time, to become part of that period of time

to become part of that garden culture.

So one of the best known examples of this is the tapest you fragments of the mystic capture of the

unicorn where Espalee fruit trees are shown around the enclosed garden.

So this is known as a very significant part

of the unicorn tapestries

and it's estimated to have been made between 1400 to 1600.

...