Pruning the Grapes

Pruning the blueberries was so satisfying, I went out late yesterday, and pruned grapes for a while before I went to pick up Adorable Hubby at the Park and Ride, and take him over to pick up the small blue car, which got shiny new brakes and a shiny new part for the clutch so that it can start and stop on demand, rather than randomly or not at all.
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Ah, the grapes. So I whacked at the grapes, which I started to prune up last year. I read some different advice on-line about pruning grapes, so I cut them back severely again. I plan on removing more leaves after they start to make fruit. The vines make fruit, but then get various diseases of the fruit, and we have yet to eat a grape. But, one of the extensions sites I read said to take away leaves that cover the fruit to ensure good air flow, and that will cut down on some of the fungal diseases! Since my vines get extremely leafy, I will try that.
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Also, checked the garlic I planted in the garden last fall. I planted 24 cloves, and it looks like about 8 of them have come up so far. I put a lot of mulch down, so I disturbed the mulch a little, to give them more of a head start.
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Speaking of garlic, I read some Greek recipes the other day that also involved grape leaves, so I want to find out how to process the grape leaves so that we can eat them! So many projects, so little time.

August in the Woods...

Wow, I can't believe it is so long since I have been here. The summer has been really busy. We went to Wyoming for 10 days in May. In June I taught some week long art classes to kids, which I hadn't done before, so this required some preparations ahead of time and evaluation afterwards. Then there was an intense summer retreat two weeks ago. Now I feel like I need to get very organized and catch up on all the things there are to do around the place. It is a little overwhelming, actually. On my way back from turning the ponies (who are bored and need to be worked) out this morning I checked the vineyard for grapes.

The previous owner planted a few grapes in a poor location, lower on a little slope, with lots of trees around so the air is pretty still and the vines only get sun for 7 or 8 hours. The vines were overgrown, with lots of oak saplings coming up in the row, and weeds, and part of the supports were broken so the vines hung on the ground. In February, I pruned back the vines unmercifully, and have whacked back the little saplings and weeds a couple times since the growing season started. Now, it looks like my efforts have paid off to some extent. In previous years, the little grapes all got some sort of fungus - they started to form up, and then turned brown and looked like little raisins without ever make grapes. Today I see the vines now have many clusters of nice fat grapes, and many of the clusters show no sign of disease! They are hard and green and the size of small marbles - hopefully they will be able to ripen so we can eat them. I don't know what sort of grapes they are. But it is exciting to see. Now I will do some in house chores - folding laundry, and then go out and weed the garden some. I love summer.