Fruit Walls - History

[veggiechicken]

Saw this interesting article about the development of Fruit Walls and greenhouses and wanted to share it.

Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s - LOW-TECH MAGAZINE

The next article about Chinese GHs is also on interest. I'm sure there must be a way to use some of these techniques in our own GHs. http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/...reenhouse.html

[sparrow100]

That's a fantastic article VC, thanks for posting.

[veggiechicken]

I was impressed too! Makes me want a walled garden to play in now

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks for sharing that.

I know locals who store grapes at home in the same way now.

[Bren In Pots]

Thanks VC I've had a quick look and bookmarked it for later.

[bikermike]

fascinating - I knew about growing fruit against walls, and the wiggly walls, but not the sophistication it had reached

[nickdub]

In some Victorian gardens there was a flue built in to the wall where peaches and grapes were grown. A boy was sometimes employed to stoke the stove and keep it going over-night. So that's one growth area for employment that we could look to restart, with all the jobs now being lost to automation :-)

[Snoop Puss]

^I'm sure a pellet heater going all night could do the job too!

[Aberdeenplotter]

Great find VC. On thedownside, my attention span isn't what it was when I was younger and I'm going to have to re-read some parts again to take it all in.

edit note, I'm going to have to repair my space bar as well

[bramble]

Very interesting article VC.
We never stop learning.

[HoneyChild]

Very interesting.

My greenhouse is timber built onto a brick wall base which is a few feet high. It was in the garden when we moved in and I wasn't keen on the fact that the brick walls block light getting onto things that might be growing low down.

Perhaps I should be pleased that it's built that way? It might help retain some heat at night.

[Greenleaves]

I enjoyed reading that, thanks VC...I recall a TV programme with Harry Dodson about fruit walls

[veggiechicken]

I remember Harry Dodson showing how to keep grapes fresh in bottles too.
Friends of mine own a Gardener's Lodge within a walled garden. The nearby old house is derelict but the gardens are still fantastic. There is a glasshouse against the walls (which must be 10-12' high). Heating pipes run through the glasshouse and inside the garden walls emerging, after some distance, on the far side in another greenhouse where there is a stove. The walls still have the wires in place for the fruit trees - even some copper labels on them.
I love visiting them - like a kid in a sweetshop. Quite envious until I remember how much hard work it must be to look after. Its a private house and garden so the only pressure is their own.

[boatsman]

Fascinating article VC, thank you.

[veggiechicken]

Walled garden being restored - with pineapple house.

Scolton Manor walled garden in Pembrokeshire restored - BBC News