One of the members of Permies.com posted this fascinating article last week:
Peaches grown right here in Paris? Believe it or not, centuries ago, Paris became home to a thriving peach farming industry that produced up to 17 million fruits a year– and even today, a little-known community of cultivators are still growing them in the very same orchards.
Established during the seventeenth century, in a prominent neighbourhood of the eastern edge of Paris known as Montreuil, a 300 hectare maze walls and agricultural plots provided a unique and unlikely microclimate for the fruit, normally suited for cultivation in warmer areas such as France’s Mediterranean coast.
The peculiar architecture, known as “Murs à pêches”, wall for peaches,
served to protect peach trees planted near the walls and adapt them to a much colder environment than the fruit is typically used to (READ THE REST)
served to protect peach trees planted near the walls and adapt them to a much colder environment than the fruit is typically used to (READ THE REST)
See all the walls? This is how I grow Key Limes here in N. Florida. They make a perfect gardening microclimate. Here’s a video I created on my tropical south wall garden:
The “peach walls” idea requires a lot of infrastructure, certainly, but it does make you think, doesn’t it? This book is quite helpful in thinking through some of the microclimate gardening possibilities:
Grand dreams aside, there’s likely a space on your property that will support species that don’t normally thrive in your region. Your job is to find it. And plant something!
You can have greener thumbs by this weekend!
1 comment
Interesting stuff. The French have always been gardening wizards. I seem to remember reading that king Louis XIV had a garden of orange trees planted in large boxes so they could be moved indoors during winter
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