Pleaching and Espalier

Pleaching and espalier are two techniques used to create interesting living walls. Pleaching involves weaving the branches of closely grouped trees together. The result is a living wall created over many years. Farmers use this technique with fruit trees as well as with hedges to make them more secure. Note the size of the living wall compared to the people in the background by the gate… it’s massive.

Arley Hall, Northwich, Cheshire in Northern England

Pleaching isn’t hard, but it does require training the plants early. There aren’t many North American trees that pleach well so if you’re looking to do it, you’d likely want to check with an arborist to ensure your work pays off.

Pleached apple trees

Trees that have pliable branches are the best to use and include apple, linden and hawthorn trees. The picture above is of a bunch of apple trees pleached to form a pathway.

Pleaching trees and hedges

To make the hedge above, the specimens should be planted 4-5 feet apart . The lower part of the trunk shouldn’t have any branches on it. You’ll tie jute twine between the trees to be a guide for the branches to grow together. After the plants grow and thicken, you can get rid of the twine and you’ll have a living wall.

Espalier services shows a conservatory at Longwood Gardens which uses the espalier technique to grow the plant along a wire fence to make the rooms of the large building more intimate. Espalier is the art of make plants into 2D objects instead of 3D. You can also make this wall out of certain types of fruit trees which has the benefit of allowing you to pick fruit right off the wall.

Indoor espalier fence

Here are three apple trees at Longwood Gardens again made into u-shaped espaliers. It saves space as they’re grown flat against the wall and allows you to pick the fruit easily. Below shows espaliers on a larger scale. The first shows the setup began its first tier at 4 ft high to create the living fence. The second is two years later.