While remodeling the interior of our house, the exterior was severely neglected. The backyard was in especially bad shape as it had been the dumping spot during demolition. Warm weather, completing inside projects, and my son's longer naps encouraged me to get cracking on the backyard! Our first summer in the house was all about clearing debris and overgrown plants, with some time dedicated to planting along one side of our fence. The second summer we focused on creating flower beds, a walking path, and more planting. As the bed and path shaped up, the fence was looking pretty shabby in comparison. I decided to stain the fence, but was worried it wouldn't turn out good. As a back up I figured a trellis with vines on the fence would be a good way to disguise any of my mistakes! Luckily the stain looked fine, but I was still determined to try a tutorial I came across from Megan Pflug's site, meganpflugdesigns.com, called Espalier Garden Redux. It is so easy and pretty budget friendly. Keep reading for my lessons learned.