Fruit walls or Fruit growing without a green house

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming.html

"We are being told to eat local and seasonal food, either because other crops have been tranported over long distances, or because they are grown in energy-intensive greenhouses. But it wasn't always like that. From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, urban farmers grew Mediterranean fruits and vegetables as far north as England and the Netherlands, using only renewable energy.

These crops were grown surrounded by massive "fruit walls", which stored the heat from the sun and released it at night, creating a microclimate that could increase the temperature by more than 10°C (18°F). Later, greenhouses built against the fruit walls further improved yields from solar energy alone.

It was only at the very end of the nineteenth century that the greenhouse turned into a fully glazed and artificially heated building where heat is lost almost instantaneously -- the complete opposite of the technology it evolved from..."

Only ever the richest people had these fruits. Generally these methods require both space and a lot of TLC.

Based on the images in the article, I'd say, no...a lot of space wasn't required for personal use depending on what you were growing. Although, yes, there was an urban farm in Paris for peaches that was huge and needed to be huge; but that was a commercial enterprise.

And yes, fruit walls were labor intensive and required specialized skills. Also, I don't disagree that the rich would have had these fruit walls. The article does mention fruit walls were common in English country houses from the 1600 forward.

I find the history article fascinating for the history. Fruit walls were used for ~300 years. Then glass was being used with fruit walls. Then passive greenhouses were built against the fruit walls. Then fruit walls fell out of favor entirely. And then the passive greenhouse turned into a free-standing building that required a ton of energy. So, something totally sustainable (but labor intensive) to the almost complete opposite.

There's a second part to the article (http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/reinventing-the-greenhouse.html) that focuses on passive solar greenhouses in China. And yes, there's discussion about the amount of space required for passive solar greenhouses.

>1 lesmel: fascinating read, and the comments were also full of information.

If your land slopes from Northeast to a downhill southwest, prevailing cold winds can be hedged a variety of ways. My grandfather was fond of telling us that fruit trees should be grown on the north slopes whenever possible. This inhibits early budding in winter. That is faint insurance against frost-bite and permanent winter damage to trees. It is not only the rich who can grow fruit trees. Cuttings can be used with rooting hormone. If one has a cheap fruit tree, 'slips' can be cut from better stock; and transplanted, producing good branches of superior fruit.

In cold climates you can get apples, melons, peaches, apricots, pears, and assorted berries, all with very little work. Those walls were nice, but as someone else said, they were for the rich and they grew figs, dates, currants, pomegranates, etc.