Espalier is the art of training a tree, shrub, or vine to grow on a flat plane. It is a European technique that has been used for hundreds of years, especially for fruit trees. This technique creates a beautiful plant structure, and is efficient in saving space in a small area. Trees trained in this method are generally trained flat against a wall, space, building or in some cases as a free-standing screen or hedge. It is an easy way for a backyard gardener to have room in a small yard to care for and maintain attractive fruit trees.

There are a few basics for successful espalier fruit trees. Most fruit trees require sun, and good soil drainage. Ideally you want a south-facing or west-facing wall in your yard for sun. Make sure you are purchasing fruit trees that are compatible with your climate zone. Be aware if they are self-fertilizing, or require another specific tree nearby for pollination. Mature espaliered fruit trees require a strong support, especially when laden with their mature fruit. Know your general guidelines for fertilizing, watering, pruning, and pest control for your trees. An espaliered fruit tree requires pruning at least two or three times a year to maintain its shape.

If you have a good location, know what kind of fruit tree you want, and what kind of shape you would like to train it, you are ready to get started. For an overview of "Espalier Patterns" and "Basic Pruning Steps for Espaliers" click on, espalier.

Most varieties of standard, semi-dwarf, and dwarf fruit trees can be espaliered. When you have a choice, go with dwarf or semi-dwarf. With espalier styles, you often hear the term, cordon. It means a single stem-like arm. In espalier patterns, you may have multiple cordons or arms. Remember espaliered fruit trees are an art form. If you have a small space to plant your tree, use 12" between your cordons, if you are trying to cover a large area, use 18" between your cordons. Start with a simple double or triple-tiered cordon, and move on to more advanced styles as you gain experience.

In some cases, certain espalier styles naturally do better with specific fruit trees. Here are some examples of styles most commonly used for popular espaliered fruit trees:

Apple--Lend themselves well to many espalier forms such as hedges, double cordon, vertical cordon, palmetto, and Belgian Fence.

Apricot--Can be pruned to hedges and fan shapes. Needs fairly heavy pruning.

Peach and Nectarine--They fruit on new wood only, requires vigorous pruning to produce new fruiting branches and to maintain espalier form. Best styles are hedge or fan.

Fig--Usually large espaliers, as you can see in the above photo. Either fan shape or natural form for tall espaliers, or low horizontal-armed shapes.

Persimmon--The Oriental persimmon is one of the best for a large, informal espalier.

Pomegranate--They do best with informal shapes, or in four, six, or eight-armed cordons.

"How To" Step by Step Planting a Three-Tiered Cordon Espalier Apple Tree:

Materials Needed: 12 to 14 gauge wire, 9/16" double-pointed staples for wood fencing, wall mounts for masonry and corresponding equipment for stucco/concrete walls, bare root  apple tree preferably with ample buds on its trunk, compost, shovel, sharp clippers, green garden tape, chalk or marker, wire clippers, pliers and tape measure.

You will need 7' of wall space to accommodate the size of a mature espaliered apple tree. Measure out a pattern with a single main trunk, and three horizontal tiers (cordons). Measure from the top of your soil up to 48" with your tape measure and mark it. This is the height of your tree; mark a horizontal line at this height which will become your top or third tier (cordon). Draw a vertical line to represent the trunk of the tree in the middle of your 7' space or at approximately 3' 5" (three feet, five inches), allowing a few inches for your tree trunk growth.

Your pattern on your wall or fence should have a vertical line 48" high, with three horizontal lines through it starting at 16" from your soil level, the second at 32" from your soil level, and the third at 48" from your soil level.

When your pattern is finished, begin to attach your wire horizontally along each tier. Each wire must be very secure to eventually support the mature tree and its fruit, whether you are using double pointed staples or masonry wall mounts. Make sure the wire is taunt and secure curling your wire tight at the end with pliers.

With your wire secure and in place, the next step is to plant your apple tree. Make a 14" wide by 14" deep hole. Add compost and mix with soil for drainage. Plant your apple tree 4" away from your fence to allow growing room, and plant so the apple tree base is at soil level. It is very important that you look for a bud on your apple tree trunk which is positioned just above the first tier wire. Potential buds are the little bumps on your tree trunk, which have the potential to grow into a cordon.

Once your tree is planted, cut with sharp clippers your tree at 1-2" above the first tier wire, and right above a bud at a 45 degree angle. This will redirect your apple tree's energy into making the side shoots at the first tier wire. Once side growth has grown 5-6", select the strongest stem on each side, and tie down to your wire with your green garden tape gingerly. Trim off any others, and trim off any new growth that might be emerging below your first tier line on your apple trunk.

At this point you will have new growth starting a cordon on each side at your first tier level, and you have small growth growing vertical, which will eventually reach the second tier level. Be careful at this stage not to allow the vertical new growth to grow more than 6". Keep nipping it back to 6" height, to allow your new side shoots along the first tier to keep growing longer horizontally.

When your first tier cordons have reached about 3/4 of the way toward the end of their wire support, you can allow the vertical trunk shoot now to grow up and reach the second tier wire level, and start the whole process over again. Continue to train your apple tree until all of the tier branching is the the 7' completed width.

As you are training your apple tree into your three-tiered shape, keep the small shoots along the cordon trimmed back to 4" to 5" long. Your tree will continue to grow and mature, and every flower will become a fruit spur, which will bear fruit. Eventually, your fruit tree will become its own support structure.

It takes about three to four years to create a mature three-tiered apple tree, but you will start to reap fruit before then. Generally with espaliered trees, fruit will be larger and sweeter, because their fruit is exposed to more sunlight and the trees have been pruned regularly to keep their shape.

A great source, in San Diego North County, for a tremendous selection of bareroot fruit trees and knowledgeable friendly customer service is www. weidners.com, (760) 436-2194.

Bonnie Jo Manion writes the garden lifestyle blog, www.VintageGardenGal.com, (tel) (760) 402-7600, cultivating the best of gardening, vintage container design, home-grown food, and backyard vineyard.

As soon as I saw these Kalanchoe beharensis, or common name Felt Plants, I knew they would look great potted in two rusty patina vintage urns, creating the look of a fire's torch. I normally see the Felt Plant in a large and upright form. These two shown in the photo are round, tightly curved, and growing in a torch-like shape.

The Felt Plant is a succulent perennial which has an abundance of character in shape, color and touch. It can reach a statuesque 4-5' tall, with little side branching. It is a soothing olive green color with beautiful chocolate brown highlights on its tips. It is very soft to the touch, just like its name Felt, and if you look closely it actually has a coating of tiny white to brown hairs. Its leaves are very thick and scalloped on the ends.

A mature Felt Plant is dramatic in appearance, especially in a raised bed or rock garden. Recently, I have seen smaller scale Felt Plants, which lend themselves well to pots, urns, and containers. It can flower, but the beauty is in the plant. It does well in full sun or partial shade. This plant thrives in zones suitable for succulents. Use moderation in watering.

The pairing of the urns with the Felt Plants make a natural vintage container design. The pedestal shape of the urn reinforces the look of a torch. The rusty coloring of the urn complements the olive green coloring and brown tip highlights. To create a finished appearance, mixed echeveria are planted around the base of the Felt Plants. All of these plants are succulents, and are best potted in a cactus potting soil mix. The urns have the ability to drain water from their bottom. Plants are potted tightly within the urns, so they will have a tendency to grow slowly and keep the design shape.

Sources: Felt Pants at Armstrong Garden Centers, (800) 557-5268, www.armstronggarden.com, Vintage Urns, see this page, top right side bar, Mon Petit Chou.

If gophers are a problem in your garden or property I can recommend an organic green solution you might not have tried yet, the beautiful narcissus bulb. Any type of narcissus bulb, which includes jonquils, paperwhites, and daffodils will be a deterrent to gophers, rabbits, and deer in your garden and property. For simplicity sake, I am writing mainly about gophers and daffodils, but this solution works just as well for rabbits and deer, using all types of narcissus bulbs.

It is important to plant bulbs that are hardy for your climate. Check the packaging information included with your bulbs, or with the source you are purchasing your bulbs from. Generally speaking, these type of bulbs are planted in the fall time frame, and are cold hardy blooming in early winter, depending again on your specific climate zone.

Narcissus bulbs are such a wonderful green solution to deterring gophers for many reasons. Once you plant your bulbs, depth and spacing depends on variety, they bloom year and year. They are simply beautiful to look at, and often very fragrant. Bulbs planted in the ground send out a year round message to critters by actually "advertising" a toxicity odor or fragrance. Yes, that's right. Even before a bulb is bitten into, it is sending a warning, that it has a natural toxicity ability to irritate (burn) the soft tissues of their mouth and cheeks. Gophers find it uncomfortable and stay clear of the bulbs, "taking a hike" out of the vicinity. To some extent by limiting their food source, you are limiting their population, and they have to go elsewhere. Once your bulbs are planted and in the ground, give it some time, and you will notice gophers staying clear of the area near your bulbs.

If you have ever had a gopher problem, you have probably tried trapping, poisoning, drowning, blasting, and a few other gopher terminator techniques. Gophers can be quite a menace taking out a rosebush, grapevine, shrub, or vegetable plant, usually by eating the root system. If you have chickens like I do, gophers can be especially persistent in trying to reach their "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow", the chicken feed bucket and ensuing spillage around it. I even have a 1 1/2 foot wire fencing buried around the chicken coop to discourage gophers.

Try planting bulbs first in a few specific areas, such as along side your chicken coop or the perimeter of your vegetable garden. With time and budget permitting, you can expand your bulb planting as you see your success.

In vegetable gardens where you have a lot of rabbits on a regular basis, try planting bulbs among your vegetables, besides the perimeter. In flower beds, for instance where you have tulips, and a problem with deer, plant your narcissus bulbs mixed closely with your tulip bulbs. All types of iris and agapanthus are gopher, rabbit, and deer resistant, too.

One of my favorite sources for bulbs is the mail order business, www.easytogrowbulbs.com (tel) (866) 725-5361. They sell bulbs for all zones, but specialize in "warm climate" bulbs. Featured in the above photo is their "Erlicheer" Daffodil.

Cakes are a symbol of celebration. We make cakes for celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, a New Year's day, and many more joyous events in our lives. It is fun to add a little personal style to your cake to make it that much more special.

In your shopping adventures look for cake stands that have a little character. If a cake stand has an edge that lends itself to a beautiful ribbon, you can find wonderful and colorful ribbons to thread around your cake stand. I have seen milk glass* cake stands with lots of panache, and lace edges for decoration. I especially like ribbons that have words on it such as, "Happy Birthday", "Enjoy the Little Things", or Lemon Meringue. Whatever you do, be sure and match your ribbon to the season and occasion of your cake.

For instance, if you are making a Halloween Cake, thread an orange ribbon with black polka dots around your cake. If you are having a Fourth of July celebration, why not dress up your cake stand with a ribbon with red, white, and blue stars and stripes. In the above photo, for the holidays this year, I used a festive red and green "Happy Holidays" ribbon.

Cake stands come in many different materials, forms, shapes, and sizes. Use your imagination. All you need is a level surface to hold your size cake, and stability for cutting slices. Use a doily, or anything decorative, and food safe to make a nice setting for placing your cake on.

Don't forget a wonderful garnish for your cake. Take your cue from the recipe you are following. Garnish either on top of your cake, sometimes along the sides, or along the bottom edge of your cake. While a garnish is important, remember "less is more", works best for a cake. You want your finished cake to be visually appealing as well as attractive to eat.

If it is winter or holiday time, confectioners sugar, white icing, and coconut flakes look like snow. Always try and use an icing or some sort of garnish on your cake. It will create a "finished appearance". Chopped nuts, candy, edible flowers, snipped herb tips, and even fruit are nice to use as garnish. You can even decorate with colored icings to create different textures, patterns, and custom looks.

Your friends and family will certainly appreciate your added flair to your home baked cakes. Who knows, you might even peak curiosity from the four-legged members in your family, too.

Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best in 2009!

-Glossary- *Milk glass: Semi-translucent glass whitened by the addition of various ingredients. Popular in glassware in previous decades.

Wintertime has it's own beauty and purpose in the garden. The leaves have fallen. The rains have arrived. The temperature has dropped. The days are shorter. Mother nature is preparing for a deep rest and dormancy in the garden. Our gardens shut down to replenish themselves for that dramatic burst of energy, we call Spring and the continuing year ahead.

As gardeners, it is a great time of the year to see our gardens in a new perspective. With leaves fallen, blooms cut, plants trimmed back, we can easily see the architectural structure and "bones" of our gardens. In places where there is snow, and ice, a painting of wintry landscape emerges. There is something very ethereal about the garden at this time. Just like the other seasons, Winter has it's own beauty and mood.

Take the time to observe your garden carefully. It is a time to be especially grateful for your garden, what the garden gives back to you and your spirit. Be grateful of your garden's bounty throughout the year. Is it pretty fresh cut flowers every week for your home. Incredibly tasty fresh fruit and vegetables to cook and bake with for your family and friends. The kinship of garden friends that share your same passion. The connection with Mother Earth.

It is the time to contemplate your garden. A time to make any changes if needed. What you like about it. What you don't. What is not doing well in a location. What needs to be added. What would you like to do, if you had no constraints.

It is a planning time. It is a time to catch your breath after the holidays, before we are once again busy in the garden and mother nature wakes up from her brief repose. Take time for yourself, and read your new garden books from the holidays. Find your magazine articles you have clipped out and saved, but haven't had a chance to read. Make a pot of tea, sit by the fire, and pour over your new seed catalogs that have wonderful new selections of vegetables to be grown. Create a "To Do List" which might include checking and sharpening your garden tools, or what might need to be purchased to be ready for Spring. Perhaps, it is a time to reflect, study and plan the new direction you might want to take your garden.

Embrace your garden in the Winter, it is a time of beauty and peace.

Have you ever had the desire to be somewhere entirely different other than snuggled at home for Christmas? It would have to be some place spectacular. It would have to be some place so beautiful, your life would be transformed for a few days, and it's memory would last a lifetime. It would have to be some place so magical, you could forgo your traditional holiday just once, in return for an unforgettable time. Chances are you could bring your loved one(s) with you, too, be it your beloved husband, sweet children, close mom, or cherished friend. Have you thought about visiting Paris at Christmas time?

Paris, one of the most beautiful and elegant cities of the world, especially sparkles at Christmas time. Trees lining both sides of the Champs D'Elysee are lit up with tiny white lights the entire length from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triumph. The Eiffel Tower is a shimmering tower of sparkle, just like a Christmas tree. Everywhere it is decorated. The large department stores on blvd. Haussmann have magnificent Christmas window displays which can entice you for hours. The design couture houses like Dior, Chanel, Pierre Cardin, and others window showcase elegant evening attire for the holiday season. Paris can be dusted with a light snow at Christmas time, but more often it is a bit chilly and windy. It is a very joyous time to be in Paris.

Whether it is your first time to Paris, or you've stopped counting, you can customize your own itinerary. There is a Paris for art lovers, history buffs, heavy-duty shoppers, children, jazz fans, foodies, or should I say, Paris has something for everyone. For those of you who do not travel with an intinerary, just being in Paris, and experiencing it by simply walking along the Seine, exploring little streets, window shopping, people watching, or reading in a nearby cafe, is enough to be moved.

For almost 15 centuries, the French have celebrated Christmas. It is celebrated throughout France, like no other holiday. It is celebrated in slightly different ways and traditions amongst it's different regions. If you are traveling to France during the holidays, read up on some of their fascinating Christmas customs, songs, traditions, stories such as "The Three Masses" by Alphonse Daudet, "The Little Juggler" legend, and for us gardeners, "The Christmas Rose" legend.

There are over 300 churches in Paris alone. Christmas Eve begins with midnight Masses. After Mass, Parisians head home, or to a favorite restaurant for one of their grandest meals of the year, the jubilant "reveillon" to feast over many courses with friends and families. It is a very festive dinner and similiar to our New Year's Eve celebration. It is also the night that French children go to sleep, and anxiously wait for slender Pere Noel (Father Christmas) and his donkey to come and fill their shoes with gifts placed near their hearth or Christmas tree.

Some Christmas tidbits or gifts ideas, that I would like to share with you while you are in Paris:

1) Angelina Tea Salon for the "best hot chocolate" in the world. While you are there, you must further indulge and have a piece of their Mont Blanc cake, made with chestnut puree and cream. 226 Rue de Rivoli, Metro: Tuileries.

2) Maille Mustard. Place de Madeleine. Metro: Madeleine. Fabulous retail location for the famous 200+ year old mustard company. You can buy it fresh from their spicket (keg), or any of their packaged "mustard du jour" selections. Makes a great gift. Caution, there are long lines during the holidays. Place de Madeleine is a foodie's paradise. Besides, Maille Mustard there are specialty shops for truffles, caviar, and handmade chocolates close by.

3) Catherine, a fabulous discount duty-free store for perfume, make up, and beauty products. 7 rue Castilgione, Metro: Concorde. Small shop with lots of charm, and personal help in finding your next "sensational" perfume.

4) Louvre Museum Gift Shop. We all know about the Musee du Louvre art museum, but don't overlook their fabulous gift shop, especially around the holidays. There is even a separate gift shop for children full of puzzles, games, and fun things. 99 rue de Rivoli, Metro: Palais Royal, Musee du Louvre.

5) Hotel Ambassador's Lobby Art Deco Bar. Wonderful hotel and lobby bar with origins from the 1920's, beautifully restored in 2002. Great place to rendez-vous, or relax with a glass of French champagne after a hard day shopping the grand department stores along blvd. Haussman. 16, blvd. Haussmann. Metro: Chausee d'Antin or Richelieu Drout.

Joyeux Noel, everyone! Perhaps you will consider Paris at Chrismas time next year.

(I apologize for not being able to put in accents, etc on the French words. I do not have a French keyboard).

Creative Repurposing Makes for Great Vintage Garden Accessory Ideas

1. Search for wonderful vintage iron bed frame ends, and secure them in your garden as a support for a heirloom tomatoes, climbing beans, or an over zealous blooming leek.

2. An old rusty pail is perfect for forcing rhubarb. Remove the bottom of the pail, place widest end in the ground around a bare root rhubarb plant. As plant grows and matures, rhubarb stalks stretch for the light, growing long straight stalks that are off of the ground.

3. Secure an upright vintage apple picker tool in your garden. Plant a flowering vine such as a clematis at the base of it, and turn the top-cupped portion into a small bird feeder.

4. A child's size vintage iron bed frame end, turned upside down and hinged on one side makes for an interesting gate and entrance to your garden.

5. Plant an old metal oil funnel with something small such as succulents, violas, and place in an old single bedspring for a holder.

6. Use a vintage carpenter's tool tote, with different compartments as your seed organizer. Keep in a dry place.

7. Find a vintage garden gate or vintage sheet of decorative wire, and hang horizontally from the ceiling of your tool, potting, or storage shed, and use for drying your favorite herbs or flowers.

8. An old iron pulley wheel, or vintage ice tongs create an interesting way to hang a flowering basket of color, such as salmon-colored trailing geraniums.

9. A vintage horse muzzle can be transformed into a splash of color, when lined with moss, potting soil added, and planted with your favorite lobelia.

10. Long-handled vintage garden tools, secured together with wire, can be shaped into a distinctive and whimsical archway for your garden or favorite pathway. Plant with purple runner beans or your favorite morning glory.

11. Vintage plant stands make interesting and perfect gazing ball pedestals in your garden.

12. Find a beautiful vintage garden tool with character and patina, mount it to the door of your chicken coop, or potting shed, and use as a handle.

This year I wanted to buy a live "green" tree for our holiday season. I thought it would be wonderful to have a live tree in the living room for the holidays. I could nurture and care for this tree throughout the year, and bring it inside in December, for an intimate few weeks. There is something so special about having a live tree inside your home. This evergreen beauty exudes the holiday season. Just look at the captivating shadows it leaves on a wall, in the photo.

I stumbled across this potted Oriental Spruce, Picea orientalis "Atrovirens" grown by the wholesale nursery brand, Monrovia, www.monrovia.com at Green Gardens Nursery, 4910 Cass St., San Diego, CA, 92109, Pacific Beach area, (858) 483-7546. This is truly a wonderful little nursery chock full of unusual plants for the holiday season, and throughout the year. You can find unusual tabletop topiaries, live christmas trees, hollies, garlands, and much more to accent your home and garden.

This beautiful Oriental Spruce reminds me of the Noble Fir tree in appearance. It is a slow grower, and ideal for keeping in a pot or container outside throughout the year, and bringing inside for a few weeks. It has dark green shiny needles, and grows in a pyramidal form which is fully branched to the base. It likes to be watered regularly when the top 3" of soil is dry. Be aware, however, if you ever plant this tree in the ground with optimum growing conditions it can reach 60-80 feet high and 20-30 feet wide. It does best in zones 2-8.

The Oriental Spruce came in a 3.6 gallon sized pot. I took it home and transplanted it into a slightly larger container that drained and had a saucer. Before transferring it to it's new container I did a little preparation. This Oriental Spruce was incredibly root bound, so I loosened the roots a bit, scored the entire root ball, and gave it a good drink letting it soak in a tub of water. I placed my newly potted spruce into a beautiful copper patina bucket to bring inside. The Oriental Spruce is so pretty, I am going to decorate simply with a single strand of tiny white lights. It needs nothing else.

Buying a live ornamental tree such as the Oriental Spruce is an investment, at least 2-3 times more expensive than a cut tree, maybe more depending on the tree. It is a worthwhile investment. One, you have a year-round tree. Two, you have an exceptional tree for the holidays. Three, you are being green, and kind to the environment. After the holidays, you don't have to dispose of it, recycling it with the garbage. Live trees are generally smaller in size, than cut Christmas trees. This Oriental Spruce will fit beautifully in our living room, and it won't be out of scale in size either.

The beauty of this tree and it's simplicity, reminds me to embrace "the spirit of the holidays", and seek other ways to be holiday green this season.