This weekend I'm hoping to go to the local nursery and purchase a couple of grape plants to put in the back yard. I've been wanting to plant grapes for a while, but I really wasn't sure when the best time to start them would be. Since I was talking with the Master Gardeners about my orange trees (see my previous post), I asked them about grapes at the same time. They said that right now it's still a little too hot to put new plants in the ground, but that I could buy them and keep them on the patio for a while and then plant them when it cools off a bit. Which works out well, since I need to work a bit on building up the soil in the area where the grapes will go. I plan to plant both green and red seedless grapes. When we moved into out house, there was a wooden structure in the corner of the yard where the previous owner had a big wisteria growing. The wisteria was alive, but it never bloomed. And it was surrounded by lots of dead brush:
We worked at cleaning up all the miscellaneous plants and dead things, and eventually that area of the yard looked like this:
We have since moved this little arbor thing to a different area. We cut the legs, so it's now only about 5 1/2 feet tall (before it was more like 7 feet). I plan to put green grapes on one side, red on the other, and let them climb up over the top. According to what I've read, you're not supposed to let the plants bear fruit the first year. Instead you're supposed to carefully prune them to help them grow strong, thick vines. Actually, all the articles I read said that you're supposed to "ensure they grow thick, strong wood." But that phrase made my inner 12 year old giggle, so I'll just call them vines. Hee!
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