Goldseal's Micro-vineyard

[NorthernWiner]

I'm just hoping nobody will say that that debris needs to come out, because that'll take months

...and no doubt a lot of tea.

[hedgerow]

if you want some graples i have loads and stick them in the post for you free of charge, they are for you wire , as for posts , as a country boy what we do is the two end ones if you cant put braces in use a larger post, my set up has two posts 6 inch's round set in the ground to 3 foot( thats how long my arms are ) and back filled with soil and using a sledge hammer to compact it down

[hedgerow]

and as for the first post you missed three other tea breaks which i would have taken

[lockwood1956]

you missed three other tea breaks which i would have taken

lol

I was thinking that as I read the post too

[hedgerow]

you can tell the amatuers from the proffesionals by the tea drinking capabilites. since iam a time served plasterer not a collage trained one i can easily do 4 cups of tea an hour where as a collage boy only does one.
tea drinking was part of the apprenticeship. we had to be able to mix plaster lay it on the wall and drink tea and sweep up, now thats multi tasking done properly

[lockwood1956]

you da man!

[hedgerow]

slurp yep slurp dunk bickie slurp its easy slurp when you slurp know slurp bickie how slurp slurp dunk dunk

[goldseal]

Apologies to any Americans who may be reading this post. It's a Brit thing

[NorthernWiner]

Apologies to any Americans who may be reading this post. It's a Brit thing

Tea? Oh, we drink it too. The only difference is we (oddly) put ice in it.

[james]

You could use "Monofil" plastic wire. If you're using gripples, monofil doesnt need a tensioning tool, just a good pear of pliers. Its good stuff, and easy to use.

gripples and monofil wire (as well as clips to attach the growing canes to the wires) are sold by Vines For Wines
They have cheap starter packs containing gripples, monofil and clips that might suite your needs

[goldseal]

Thanks James. I SHOULD be using some 2mm wire I already have, and Hedgerow is sending me some Gripples, but if they don't arrive I'll go down that route.

More progress this week:

The kerbing is in place, and I'm giving everything a good dig over. I'm still finding roots, but 'm trying to remove anything thicker than my finger. Remember, this was the site of a 20 year old, 10 ft high hedge, so there were a LOT of established plants here. The soil is full of fine roots, mostly chopped up now.

I hope the more experienced gardeners will tell me it is OK to leave this root debris. If I need to remove it all, I might as well give up now!

Once dug over, I'll dig in some 3 year old compost and get the vines in the ground. After Grapefest I'll get the posts and wires in, lay weed control matting and cover with a couple of inches of soil.

Right now I'm sat down, aching and barely able to move

Photos later, when I have time.

[goldseal]

I have finished digging, at long last.

I think I'd better wait a couple of days before I lay the weed control fabric, to let the soil settle.

Next problem - where do I put the top few inches of soil while I lay the fabric?

[goldseal]

The four posts are in - sort of.

I rented a post driver from a local hire shop (only a tenner for the weekend). Results were mixed. I managed to hammer one post halfway to the centre of the earth on my own (front right in photo), but one other would only penetrate a couple of inches with two of us trying.

I'll use varying amounts of post mix to compensate. A couple of posts will be braced with Bob's ground anchors. Other posts won't need bracing because the bracing wires will be attached to the brickwork and therefore will give me lots of leverage.

The post mix will probably go in tomorrow - I can barely grip anything at the moment

[NorthernWiner]

Smashing job (literally).

[goldseal]

Almost there.

The weed control fabric is in place, all the vines are in the ground (photo taken with two still to plant), all the wire I need is strung.

I haven't made any attempt to train the vines correctly - I'll just leave them to settle in.

Three more jobs:

1. Trim the posts to a standard height

2. Find a low-nitrogen fertiliser

3. As seems standard on this Forum, name the vines