Wooden panel fences make excellent substitutes for walls, in fact they could be called the poor man’s walls. Trees in restricted forms, such as espalier and fan, can be easily grown against fence panels. They are particularly useful for espaliers which need not be grown to any great height, three or four tiers to a twin panel or four or five tiers to a single panel.

A purpose made set-up would be: two, 6ft x 6ft panels (normally feather tip), three, 4ins x 4ins upright posts, preferably 8ft long, concreted in the ground, 18ins deep. This leaves a 6ins gap to allow the passage of cooling air flow through during blossom time underneath the fence; this is essential on a slope.

Espaliers require a solid wire at each proposed tier level; garden canes may be fastened to the wire. Fan trained plums require horizontal wires every 6ins to tie in new shoots. To this an assembly of 8ft canes are tied to form the shape of the fan, generally radiating out to about a 12 -18ins at the top; do not cut off the canes level with the fence because the protrusions will be handy for dropping a net over or trying in fleece to give air frost protection during March or April.

So what is the point of all this? The panel fence system moves your garden and orchard several degrees of latitude further south; in effect a continental climate is created. My panels are on a south facing slope so I get maximum advantage.

The benefits are:

• The temperature of my fence panels reaches over 100F (40C) on a sunny day.

• Inclement weather comes from one direction only - the front. The trees have far less wind and rain, the weather coming from a single direction. This has the effect of reducing scab infection, to which pears are particularly susceptible.

•A single dimension makes netting against birds, such as bull finches, blackbirds and starlings easy. Other protection may be required for air frost during March and April. Fleece can be tied across the front to protect the tender blossom and lifted on sunny days.

• Fence panels have a great advantage over wall culture in that walls suck up moisture out of the ground and the soil is always dry in summer. This does not happen with fence culture.

• The fruit quality has to be seen to be believed. It far and away exceeds fruit grown in open ground. The fruits tend to be large, skin colour is better and there are many less imperfections because there is no wind damage. The crops can be heavier and stay on the tree longer. Last year the Jubileum plums lasted for six weeks. Another major advantage is virtually no cracking during wet spells. In short the fruit is very impressive.

Originally I had two lines of fence panels devoted to cordon culture, but the results were very disappointing and all the trees except one, Tentation apple, were transplanted into open ground to grow as pyramids or bushes. Now my seven fence panels support the following varieties.

Panel No 1: Japanese plums (Prunus salicina) Methley and Shiro. They flower in March and require protection. These varieties are for the enthusiast and gave superb crops last year.

Panel No 2: Coe’s Golden Drop and Thames Cross plums; Thames Cross was bred from Coe’s Golden Drop, so it is a family fence. Both are late plums, ripening around early October and too late for the wasps. Coe’s is a classic quality plum, a veritable sugar factory with six months to stock up its intense honied flavour, and a good cropper. Thames Cross is one of the largest plums; the tree is not vigorous and therefore suitable for fence culture.

Panel No 3: Jubileum and Edwards plums. Jubileum appears to have it all and is in my top three for flavour and texture - large fruits, juicy, good colour and excellent crops. It is similar to Victoria but larger and about a week earlier; freestone. Edwards is an American cooker and a waste of a prime spot.

Panel No 4: Reeves Seedling grown as a bush, but my number one for flavour, texture and size; freestone. The bush is wracked with bacterial canker but still crops. The fan version is three years old and cropping but the tree is not old enough to provide the flavour. Also on this fence is an apple bred by George Delbard Nurseries called Jubilé, also known as Delgollone. Growth of this espalier has been slow but the bottom tier had a full crop of superb looking apples last October.

Panel No 5: Doyenné du Comice pear as a four tier espalier. Fruit is large and well coloured. In 2005 and 2006 the flavour was moderate, but should improve as the tree matures. Red Comice, recently planted, is being trained as an espalier. Peradel or Delbuona, trained as a cordon, produced precocious, excellent quality fruit last year and is number one for flavour. This is another Delbard variety, but not widely available in the UK.

Panel No 6 : Recently planted pears not yet cropping.

Panel No 7: Recently planted pears; Tentation apple as a cordon with a small crop this year and Brown Turkey fig planted in a barrel to restrain vigorous root growth. The figs are large but not of the same quality as indoor figs.

Other choice plums that might be tried are Ontario Gage, Opal (both early varieties), Cambridge Gage, Avalon and Denniston’s Superb.