Selfsufficientish.com

I have a bouhdary wall/fence which faces south east and gets direct sun from first thing til about 2pm (this time of year). It's in my veg garden and I would like to plant some fruit trees to train against it, ideally a plum, sweet cherry and maybe a greengage. Would these thrive in that situation? I already have a cherry and plum but the birds/wasps get all the fruit! At least I would be able to net them against a wall.

East facing can be difficult but not impossible. South East will prolly work. me - I'd just try it. sweet cherry you will have to net against birds.

Thanks Red, I'll give it a go, after I've added loads of horse manure 'cos the soil round here is rubbish.

Marie

Tayberry tolerates shade quite well, and the fruit are yummy.

Think about the overall height of the trees you will put in there. If you are training them against a wall, then you will be pruning them quite a lot anyway but you don't want samples that are forever straining beyond the available room.

Also, although you want to train the trees against the wall, don't plant them too close. The wall will create a rain shadow and the foundations will limit the root run. Off the top of my head, I can't quote a reliable rule of thumb but I suspect a foot or more would be good. It certainly made a difference a run of blackcurrant bushes at the previous house I was living in (planted about 3" from the wall and struggling; I move them about 1' away and they thrived).

Wulf

If you're training against the wall,so long as you're not too far north |I'd have a go with the Gages(mostly because they're so brilliant.)You may need to net them against a late frost(almost as effective as fleece) as well as birds/wasps etc but they're well worth it.They've done well wwith this treatment 1000 ft up in Shrops. Get something decent on dwarf stock,for supply check out Frank Matthews in Tenbury Wells (usual disclaimers),great nurserymen,and nice people. BW.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll have a look at the best root stocks for the available space. I'm lucky to live in a area that has some specialist nurseries, can't wait to go shopping!