Growing Grapes

There seems to be many different ways of growing grapes.  My neighbour has his in straight rows growing on wire and posts.  He has a soaker hose under each row to water them.

He prunes and train the vines and attaches them to the horizontal wires.  This photo was taken earlier this spring.

Our yard came with several grape arbors.  The grapes grow up and over and make a tunnel of sorts.  Some of the grapes growing here are very sweet, seedless green grapes (variety unknown) that are great to eat and also make lovely raisins.

We added the bark since it was just bare dirt and weeds when we came.  This arbor needs some work since some of the grapes grow in the wrong direction and lay out on the flower bed on the front side.  I think heavy duty pruning is needed next year to get the vines growing where we want them.

On the way to the Abbotsford Airport, I saw fields of grapes growing like this.

I stopped to look and the top are all tied down to the top wire.

No one was around to ask why they grow them like this and I haven't been able to find anything in my gardening books either.  It does look quite neat at this stage though, doesn't it?

Here they are several weeks later.  I'd like to see them now but haven't had the time to take a trip that way.

This is the second arbor that was here when we got the place.  There was grass, mint, tulips, roses and weeds all mixed up under here.  Nothing did really well because of the shade and the fact that you trample everything when you harvest the grapes.  So I dug everything out and rehomed the bulbs and roses.

My son added this outside section on as he came home with some new grapes vines one day a couple of years ago.

My honeybunch added a peak to the entrance this summer as the vines were always hanging too low.

He also added more cross poles so we could tie up the young vines to train them to go up and over.

Here is Inspector Lulu checking out the new digs.  She approved as we've found her snoozing here in the shade sometimes.  Now all we need is to put peaks on the other entrances and put in bricks of some sort for a floor and we have a nice little shady nook.

Here are some of the grapes that have a ways to go to turn a luscious dark purple.  They will soon smell and taste heavenly.  I also use these to make juice and jelly from them.

We also inherited some wine grapes.  They are small and seedy so not great for eating.  I haven't really used them for much yet except the chickens love them as a treat.  No waste and everyone is happy.  ;)