
Fruit Walls: Before Greenhouses, Garden Walls Created Urban Micro-Climates - jmadsen
https://99percentinvisible.org/article/fruit-walls-before-greenhouses-walled-gardens-created-urban-micro-climates/
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vanderZwan
This is just taking another article, summarising it, and posting the exact
same pictures otherwise:

[http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-
far...](http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming.html)

At least in this case the original article is properly referenced, but the Low
Tech Magazine version is much more elaborate and also has many links to
sources.

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icc97
> crops grown in heated greenhouses have energy intensity demands around 10 to
> 20 times those of the same crops grown in open fields. A heated greenhouse
> requires around 40 megajoules of energy to grow one kilogram of fresh
> produce, such as tomatoes and peppers

I don't understand this. The point of a greenhouse is that you get warmth from
the sun without extra heating. Tomatoes and peppers grow in England in
greenhouses and polytunnels just fine.

Edit: Separately the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall are very interesting.
They too have greenhouses against brick walls [0]

[0]:
[http://heligan.com/explore/gardens/](http://heligan.com/explore/gardens/)

~~~
vanderZwan
> _crops grown in heated greenhouses have energy intensity demands around 10
> to 20 times those of the same crops grown in open fields._

I dug into the source for that claim. Basically, the article forgets to
mention that it is comparing an open field in warmer climates to a greenhouse
in colder climates.

The source article[0] cites a report by the The Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations[1] for that claim. Going into the source:

> _Energy inputs can be around 40MJ /kg for fresh produce, such as tomatoes or
> peppers (FAO, 2011a). In countries such as China and South Korea, the area
> used for simple shade houses is increasing, but their energy inputs are low
> compared with energy-intensive heated greenhouses used in other parts of the
> world. In general, crops grown in greenhouse can have energy intensity
> demands around 10 to 20 times that of the same crops grown in open fields
> (Saunders and Hayes, 2009)_

[0] [http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-
far...](http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming.html)

[1]
[http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2454e/i2454e00.pdf](http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2454e/i2454e00.pdf)

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binarynate
A great episode to kick off the Radiotopia fall fundraising campaign:

[https://www.commitchange.com/ma/cambridge/prx-
inc/campaigns/...](https://www.commitchange.com/ma/cambridge/prx-
inc/campaigns/radiotopia-fall-campaign-2017)

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cafard
[https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/atmosphere-8/](https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/atmosphere-8/)

