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Paris jadis (suite) They use to grow peaches in Montreuil


ericd

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Hi all. Following in mint's footsteps, a very interesting link with old postcards and a Parisian fruit growing fact that I wasn't aware of.

All in French I'm afraid.

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/fr/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming.html?fbclid=IwAR2PbKW0UYnoWKBpNLr2dd13WuECJUg-OiUVrT2wVmlURAN45SEH5zsjdtw
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Well, eric, last year we had un mur aux tomates et aux piments[:D]

Had more tomatoes and peppers than we ever had in the past.  OH used to grow roses against the wall but the poor roses found the wall too warm.

It is the wall of the sous-sol and it is quite long so we had maybe 6 plants against it.

Well you can't be more locauvore than that, can you?

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Roses ..... who wants to cultivate roses ...?? If you have managed to read the info all the way, it clearly says that a thick walled narrow garden is much better than any greenhouse protection. Gardeners could achieve a temperature difference of 8c to 10c between walled gardens and outside non-protected areas.
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Yes, I did read the whole article[:)]  But there wasn't a great deal that was new, as such.  Towards the end of the article, it did mention the walled gardens of "les manoirs" of England and earlier on there was talk of fruit trees grown in espalier fashion.

We grew our tomatoes and peppers against our sous sol wall.  I didn't mention glass.  It's well known that walls retain warmth.  Mind you, the plants did require large amounts of water and dried quickly with limp leaves if they weren't watered about 4 times daily.

Don't know what we'll do this year.  It was quite a lot of work and the article did say that the skill and work that was required and the advent of railways meant fruit and veg could be easily transported from Mediterranean countries and therefore this type of agriculture became unviable.

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Fruit and veg from other countries, especially Spain and Morocco, might be less trouble than home produced, but what a difference! Often grown hydroponically under plastic, it has no flavour whatsoever. Add in the fact that it's often harvested before maturity, to aid transport, and you might as well chew a plastic bag! Home-grown presents it's challenges and the result is rarely 'perfect', but a ripe peach or tomato picked warm off the plant is incomparable :-)
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I agree so much about the taste of such things as tomatoes, so much more flavour when home grown.

A friend in Beaune who runs/used to run a wonderful b&b (who knows in the future!) grows peaches against one of the garden walls, which she serves with her copious breakfasts.

She has to be vigilant throughout the winter in case her fruit trees need fleece putting over them. So many years she’s almost been in tears because she’s not managed to save her fruit.

Any thoughts of possibly buying in the area disappeared when we knew a bit more about how icy-cold their winters could be. For her it was home, she just had to be more vigilant; her husband is the last of a long line of vignerons and to live a few steps away from the centre of Beaune is wonderful.
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