Mixing fruit trees question

I've (somewhat crazily) decided to attempt growing a couple of fruit trees in my garden, and training them in espalier form.
I started off by considering an apple and a pear tree...
...but then got stopped by worrying about fertilisation (self-fertilising pear varieteis are not very common)
...so then thought about having two apple trees, one dessert and one cooker...
but then stopped again, worrying about cross-pollination (wouldn't the result be a crab apple?)

At this stage I'm a bit stuck for choice. Can anyone offer some guidance on mixing trees, please?

 

John, first of all, Welcome to GC. - Here you will find an unrivalled pool of knowledge, experience and advice.

Now, your trees, - are you in a 'suburban' situation?, where neighbours may also have trees? - if so no problems with polination. Pears in general are less of a problem so you should be alright there.

Any information you can give will enable other members to give specific advice.

a-a

 

As said John, in most situations there are enough trees locally to pollinate.

You appear to belive that crab apples will result from cross pollination between various apples.
Not so, the variety will produce, as long as its pollinated.

In fact crab apple trees are quite often used as pollinators for apples in general.

 

Hi Alex-Adam & Pete. Thanks for the welcome.

Yes, the garden is in the middle of a suburban estate. The entire plot is about 25ft x 35ft, surrounded on three sides by 6-foot-high wooden fences. The fourth side is the bungalow wall, with a 6ft wide paved patio in front.
I'm situated in East Anglia, so we get longish periods of relatively steady weather in all seasons. That is, if the sun shines, it'll keep doing so for a week, but if the rain clouds form - get the canoe ready.
Winter can be a bit painful, with occasional blasts of cold wind screaming down from Scandinavia. It's called a 'lazy' wind - it doesn't go around you, it goes through you! Having said that, the garden itself is very sheltered and doesn't suffer too much from the more boisterous side of nature.

The side I've earmarked for the espaliers is the remaining 'long' side of the plot & faces southwest-ish. It gets good sunlight in the latter part of spring, all of the summer and the first part of autumn. At other times, the shadow of the bungalow gets in the way when the sun starts going down.
Whilst I'd like to see some decent fruit growing eventually, it's true to say I'm more interested in hiding the fence with something a bit bit more 'visual' than bare wood planks.

As for the availability of other fruit trees in the locality, I really don't
know. I can say that there are no visible fruits trees nearby. There's a magnificent holly tree in the garden next door, but that wont help me much. On the up side, the curse of unchecked cupressus doesn't appear to have taken root around here yet.

Pete - thanks for putting me right on the topic of crab apples. I guess I was told that crabs are the result of a dessert/cooker cross some time way back in my past & had kept that memory.