Fruit trees: Impulsive purchase

With the weather looking a bit rubbish this week, I decided to turn my attention to interior decorating.
We moved into this house last summer and, apart from one wallpapered wall and two sets of new curtains, it still looks like we've just arrived.
I pondered the colour charts and took the wallpaper samples outside into the sun to compare the shades.
After much indecision (interior design does not come naturally to me) I drew up a list of what I needed and headed over to Homebase.
Clutching my list in my hand, I strode up to the front doors but was immediately distracted by a big red sign: "Fruit trees only £9.99."
Ooh, I thought. I had been trying to find a pair of dwarfing apple trees for my garden since before Christmas but had never found any that were the right root stock, self pollenating or even two decent specimens of roughly the same size.
When I did find something suitable, they were so expensive, I gave up the idea completely.
Hmm...
Argh! Stop! Focus!
I came here to buy paint...
So I continued into the shop, grabbed the paint, paid for it, put it in the car and went straight home...
Well, kind of...
I admit I may have accidentally purchased two lovely Mini Patio Sophia apple trees at £14.99 each, which I plan to train between the posts separating the lower level of my garden.
As a penance, I emulsioned the chimney breast... Two coats!

Fruit trees: Pleaching to the converted

Until a few weeks ago I had dispelled the idea of growing fruit in my garden.
Soft fruit would get picked off by birds and mice and there simply isn't enough room for an apple or pear tree... or is there?
On a recent visit to the Kent Life Museum near Maidstone I noticed their farmhouse garden had a low step-over hedge of dwarf apple trees, which set me thinking about my own garden.
I had already learned about pleaching and espalier from my in-house experts and wondered if dwarf trees could be trained between the posts that support a railway sleeper retaining wall.
I consulted my wiser and green-fingered other half and, to my delight, he agreed it would be a fine idea.
An early visit to a nursery taught me that there are grades of root stock which determine the size of the tree. The M27, I have learned, is not just the motorway running from Sussex to Hampshire, it is also the most dwarfing of apple rootstocks and grows to about 2 metres. It might also come as no surprise to learn that the M25, on the other hand, is very vigorous and produces a large tree.
As when driving, I think I'll avoid the M25 for now.