Apples

I was searching around for beginning vegetable gardener layout plans for awhile today, thinking about what might be best encouraged (how big, raised beds?, start small and expand, what to grow?)

But I happened on a wonderful piece from the Herb Companion about a step by step approach. How nice. But what perked my interest is that one of the first things he includes are apples, espaliered in the back of the garden.

I love apples and would definitely enjoy adding them to my garden (if I didn't have to spray and coddle them too very much) either here in the Piedmont or in the mountains. I'm going to poke around investigating good apple varieties-- maybe I'll find something suitable!

And in my searching around the web, I was reminded that the Royal Horticultural Society is doing a GREAT job with their Grow More Veg and Grow More Fruit website. They actually have informative and interesting videos about growing techniques -- check it out!