Got a blank fence? Farm on it. Or espalier

I was researching an article on permaculture when I came across this idea that I just loved from Suszanna Forsling of Iowa. She bolted rain gutters along her fence and used them to grow greens.

I expect she has to water some, since the gutters don't hold a whole lot of soil. But lettuce that is going to be eaten young and tender doesn't have a large root system.

Another approach is the living wall systems (here's another one) that are becoming more available now. Basically, they are planting pockets arranged in a grid that you can hang on a wall or a fence. The Wicker Park Garden Club used them on pillars at the 2009 Chicago Flower & Garden Show. I've mostly seen them used for succulents or perennials, but I don't see why you couldn't grow greens in them.

There are so many tiny courtyard and townhouse gardens that would be so much more lovely to sit in if their tall, claustrophobic blank walls bore anything green, especially something that could become salad.

I have a blank cedar fence bordering my front yard, but unfortunately, it's in shade too deep to grow vegetables, even greens. I am having some success in softening its appearance by turning a couple of viburnums --one arrowwood and one juddii -- into espaliers. I used viburnums because I thought they had the best chance of making it in the deep shade (climbing hydrangea had already failed in that spot) and because I once saw a patio in Pennsylvania immensely improved by a viburnum espalier.

Though overhung by the next-door maple, both shrubs are putting on slow but steady growth with limited sunlight. This is not formal, geometrical espaliering, like they do with fruit trees; I pretty much let the branches go where they will, as long as it's more or less in the flat plane. As you might expect, I get more growth on the side that is toward the light.

Every couple of months I go out and prune off any stems that have sprouted in directions I don't approve of. Then I loosely tie the greenstick ends of properly oriented branches to the fence to support them and suppress any temptation they might have to alter their direction. I use small brass screw eyes from the hardware store, which easily screw into the soft cedar without pre-drilling, and soft jute twine with enough slack so the branches can move easily in the wind.

I've used both green and natural-colored twine and I don't find either color is highly visible; the green fades to natural eventually anyhow. The key to discreet ties when you are espaliering or staking is to snip off any fluttering loose ends.

I find that this espalier business is not about bending the branches to your will. It's about selecting the ones that already are growing in the direction you want -- usually a flat plane -- and pruning off all the rest. It's about editing, not directing.

Got a garden question? I recommend you call or e-mail the Plant Clinic of The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, the Master Gardeners of the University of Illinois Extension or the Plant Information Service of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe .

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