The Hopeful Vineyard and Northern Garden

2009-12-30T08:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm finally able to find time to post again. The new house is finished enough for us to live in now. We rushed like crazy the last week and moved in on December 24th. The whole project was not without its difficulties and heartaches though.

While we worked on the house we lived in a friend's RV just across from the construction site. When we first put it up it leaked so bad we had to strap an allover tarp on the roof. Of course that meant the vents didn't work too great at expelling extra heat and when our summer temperatures reached 40C we were cooking like bacon on a griddle!

Temperatures plummeted to -38C in November and cracked and froze the pipes in the RV despite skirting and insulating and putting two electric heaters under the thing. Don't know what more we could have done. In any case that meant NO WATER - no shower, no toilet, no washing machine. Slogging back and forth in the snow to the portable toilet set up for the workers at those temperatures was pretty miserable. We also had to hike water over to the RV in big buckets which we used sparingly for washing up and doing dishes. I felt like a pioneer. Fortunately the RV furnace worked well and we stayed surprisingly warm once we supplemented it with a good electric garage-style heater. Of course we ran out of propane in the middle of the night and the floor in our bedroom literally froze. My poor husband had to get up at 2:00 am to change the tanks when it was -30C and windy while I huddled under a pile of blankets inside. Not fun.

During the course of construction we hired an extra worker. The first week on the job he ran over and killed my little dog. I was heartbroken. He'd been my companion for many years - a sweet, gentle little man whom I loved dearly. The second week on the job the new workman dropped some scaffolding on his hand and went on compensation. We'd never had a claim despite most of my husband's work being far more dangerous than building houses. He logs with horses and does conventional small scale logging. It's the most dangerous business in our area yet no one on his crew has ever been hurt.

This morning I went back over to the RV to start unloading more of our stuff and found another catastrophe. We'd erected a canvas shelter beside the RV to house our freezer, large metal filing cabinet, barbecue and dog bed along with a couple of outside tables and chairs that we used during the summer. When I rounded the corner of the RV I could see it had collapsed under the weight of a heavy snowfall that fell last night. It's going to be a mess to clean up. All my frozen stuff is buried under the snow in our deep freeze that is now beeping plaintively. We're having company for supper and I can't get at any of the meat and desserts I'd planned to serve! My worst fear was that our big dog was in his dog bed when it fell. I couldn't find him for a while and was getting pretty panicky when he finally trotted over. What a relief. My husband's gone to do some tree falling so I'll have to see if I can dig it out enough to get at the freezer.

ABOUT MY GRAPE VINES. Although I feared they might die from neglect over the past summer, all of my outside vines survived except for the more tender unknown varieties I'd been given. I'd taken some soft cuttings of my Valiants in the spring of 2008 and left them in the greenhouse that winter. This past spring I took the time to properly plant them out in a raised bed in the greenhouse. They've done fantastic. I think I'll use them as a source of cuttings to increase my little vineyard next year. The two tender varieties I planted inside the greenhouse instead of outside also survived and yielded a few grapes. I constructed a trellis high overhead on the north side of the greenhouse and trained them to grow up there. That way they don't interfere with any of my other plants and don't shade out anything.

I'm going to try a little experiment with next years cuttings. I'll start some in regular plant pots as I usually do as 'controls'. I'll start a few others in grow tubes cut into 12" and 24" lengths. I'll keep all groups in the greenhouse over the summer and winter of 2010 then plant them outside in the spring of 2011. I want to see if a longer root system gives the plants any advantage in our cold climate. Although the cuttings started in pots grow a fairly long root system they also fill out on either side and are restricted from growing very deeply by the shallowness of most pots. I'm thinking that plants with longer roots and few tender side feeders may handle their first cold winter better, making them hardier in the long run. If it works well for the Valiants I'll probably give more tender varieties a try.

I have a nice view of my vineyard from my new 'office' window. The vines are pretty well buried under snow so are well insulated from the cold. Now I have to go outside and attempt to uncover my buried freezer. Wish me luck!

2009-04-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, so my vines are STILL under a few inches of snow and my house STILL looks like this!

Rebuilding is going to take the whole summer and probably longer. I won't have any electricity this summer so needless to say, no water. Not to mention I can't even live on the property. Regular gardening won't be happening. However, I'll use the generator in the well house to pump and save enough water for my grapes, assuming the cuttings I started over the summer survived in the greenhouse. Winter temperatures fluctuated something awful and dropped as low as -40 centigrade. Fine for polar bears but although I live in northern BC our bears have enough sense to hibernate.

Greenhouse Design
Growing food in cold climates is a challenge so I was thrilled when my husband built me a generous-sized greenhouse last year. Isn't it great!

view from north side of greenhouse

view from west side of greenhouse

The inside measurements are 14' x 24', giving me plenty of room to grow what I want. The 10 foot high north wall is a solid wood wall with two 18" x 4' ventilation 'windows' at the top. We installed heat-activated window openers on the vents and they open automatically when things get too hot inside the greenhouse. We bought them from Lee Valley and they work great. We'll probably install another one on the shorter 4 foot side to help with air circulation. I also open the top part of the door if it's really hot.

The roof is made of twin wall polycarbonate sheets. They're a milky color not clear as I didn't want either myself or my plants frying in the noonday sun. I highly recommend the roofing material. Not only does it let in a soft light, it also helps retain the heat on cold days and the greenhouse doesn't cool down as fast as it normally would.

The steep slope of the roof keeps snow from building up on it over the winter. We had a lot of snow this year and it slid off perfectly until the accumulated snow that fell off on the short side piled as high as the roof! I was afraid the roof might cave in when the snow pile prevented snow from sliding off the roof but it was fine.

We made raised beds with 10" high sides and filled them with a mixture of soil and well rotted manure. Everything grew like gangbusters!

My greenhouse was filled with corn, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, peppers, watermelon, bush beans, zucchini plus a variety of herbs and I even grew ground cherries for the first time. The ground cherries produced a huge crop and I was fascinated by the little lantern-shaped husks that covered the fruit. The zucchini ran riot so I'll only grow it outside next year. The ones planted outside were fine. My family loves chocolate zucchini cake, zucchini relish and a meatloaf recipe I use with zucchini and salsa so the inside plants were just an insurance policy anyway.

Aren't they cute! Over the winter the little lanterns on the ground cherries broke down into these lacy-veined containers. Inside you can see a few seeds which I'll collect and plant this year.

LIFE THREW A FEW CURVES

2008-12-28T19:47:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I won't be posting anything for a bit. Our house burned down on the 21st and we're still reeling. Family, friends and neighbors have been terrific but I need to take time now to focus on dealing with the insurance company and finding temporary housing until we can rebuild.

I hope to post again in the next couple of weeks.

GROWING GRAPES FROM CUTTINGS

2008-12-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

There are two ways to grow grapes from cuttings. One is to use dormant or hardwood cuttings which are taken any time after the vine loses its leaves until buds start swelling in the spring. The second is to take green cuttings from any vigorously growing shoot before the shoot stops growing and starts to get hard and turn brown.

Because our winters get pretty darned cold, I decided to take green cuttings in early spring. This would give the young plants time to establish themselves over the summer. I took cuttings about 6 inches long (15 cm) and removed all but the top leaf. If the top leaf was small I left it intact but if it was a full size leaf I cut it in half. Keeping the leaf small reduces water loss from the leaf surface.

I filled a black plastic one gallon pot with rotted manure and garden soil then used a small dowel to push holes in the dirt and slipped in the 6 best cuttings a little more than half way. I gave them a thorough watering and in order to create a humid chamber to keep the cuttings from wilting until rooted, I covered the pot with a plastic bag. Because I kept the cuttings in the greenhouse I used a white plastic bag instead of clear plastic so they wouldn't fry in the sun. I left them alone for a month, simply checking for moisture and adding water when necessary.

Once I saw new leaf growth I took off the bag but left the cuttings in the pot for a couple of more weeks, making sure they never dried out and that the cuttings weren't wilting. After filling smaller black plastic pots (can't remember the size but about half the diameter of the big one) with the same manure/soil mixture, I removed each new plant and checked the root systems. All showed healthy root growth so I potted them out, watered them and left them in the same place alongside the raised beds in the greenhouse for the rest of the summer.

Just before the plants went dormant I sank the pots in an empty greenhouse raised bed. Once the leaves fell, the plants were brown and hard and our temperatures dipped below freezing most nights, I mounded the plants almost completely with soil. All that was left after that was to keep an eye on day time temperatures. When it got too warm I opened the greenhouse door to let in cooler air. I wanted to make sure the grapes stayed dormant. Once they've started producing their 'antifreeze', it's critical not to allow them to warm up.

Next spring I'll uncover and leave them in the greenhouse until I'm ready to plant them in their permanent place in the vineyard. Once they've hardened off for a few days, I'll plant them and protect them with grow tubes for their first summer. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the process but will be better prepared next spring and take photos of each step.

Next week I'll share a few of the tips I've learned about stimulating vine growth, winter protection and protection from early spring frosts, etc.

TRELLISING

2008-12-08T14:12:00.000-08:00

In general, experts say to orient rows north-south because the vines get more prime midday sun. But orienting the rows east-west gives the grapevines more morning sun. Photosynthesis is greatest in the early morning and I've found that pretty much any plant that receives those first early morning rays of the sun shows better and quicker growth, something very desirable in our short growing season. Planting on a south slope is also the most advantageous during the growing season, providing the heat necessary to finish ripening the grapes. Because my vineyard site is flat and I oriented my rows east-west, I needed to compensate.

I had my husband build a trellis framework that allowed for a 30 - 35 degree slope toward the south and trained the vines up onto page-wire fastened on top of this framework. The shoots spread out over the page-wire. Angled toward the southern midday sun like a solar collector, all the shoots receive this prime-time sun.

I hope to get the best of both worlds - orienting the rows to receive maximum benefit from the early morning sun and angling the fruit and foliage toward the hot midday sun.

The snow is too deep to go out into the vineyard and take a picture of the trellis but I'll snap a photo in the spring and post it here so you can see what I've done.

Next year I may try a slightly different technique to maximize solar gain, along the lines of a Latvian vineyard where a massive brick wall was erected and the vines planted about 3 feet from the wall. The trellis looked like a giant ladder with the bottom directly behind the vines and then leaned back until it touched the top of the wall. Same sort of slant idea. The vines don't seem to have a trunk and rather look like bushes.

A brick wall would be far too expensive to build so I'll probably look at a pattern similar to that used for building a pole shed as small logs are easier to come by.

Next week I'll talk about the method I used for growing plants from cuttings.

PLANTING

2008-11-28T09:45:00.000-08:00

I was pretty excited when my Valiant plants arrived this past spring. I ordered the plants during winter so they'd be sure to arrive at the right time for planting in our area. Just before my purchased plants arrived, a friend came by with some vine cuttings she had in her basement in a bucket of sand and dirt. They'd been given to her by someone several months previous and she wanted me to try growing them.
The problem was, the cuttings were from grapevines grown in Zone 7 or 8 and I'm in Zone 3. Added to that she had no idea of the varieties. They were a mix of several. Terrific. I managed to salvage about half of them. Two survived in the greenouse and four made it outside so I started the outside survivors in a second row.

I decided on a 5 foot spacing between the vines with 7 foot aisles between the rows. (I know, I'm from Canada, I should be using metric. But I have a lot of friends in the US and metric conversion is just a pain) The rows are oriented east to west. This allows the sun to shine along the length of the row at rise and set and reach every row full on in mid day when the sun is at its highest. At least that's the theory.

I dug 2 foot holes for each plant then added some well-rotted manure to the very bottom of the holes. I put a base of soil on top of the manure so the roots wouldn't come in contact with the manure then I held the plants in place and filled in the rest of the holes around them. I topped the soil with a thin layer of manure and packed everything down level with the ground.

I wasn't sure what to do about weed control. We have enormous thick, long-rooted thistles up here. I opted for black landscape cloth and intended to add a couple of inches of rock but didn't get that part done. Each plant received a huge bucket of water once a week for the first two months. After that I watered every couple of weeks unless it rained and then I'd wait a week more or longer before watering again.

I realize fertilizer, organic or not, isn't usually recommended at planting time but I wanted to encourage a good root system and leaf growth the first year or so. My thinking was that the top layer of manure would leach through nutrients as I watered, benefiting the roots near the surface and as the roots reached downward they'd be fed from the manure at the bottom of the planting hole. I plan to nip off all but one cluster on each vine next season anyway so root and leaf feeding will continue.

The vines flourished beautifully this summer. Right now it's snowing like crazy and the plants will soon be well insulated from the cold.

Next week - TRELLISING.

MY VINEYARD? I WISH

2008-11-23T15:28:00.001-08:00

Beautiful grapes. Love 'em.
My two great passions in life are writing and growing plants. I live in northern British Columbia and have been told, politely of course, that I'm nuts to consider growing grapes with such harsh winters and our short growing season. Wrong thing to say to me. I welcome the challenge.

Having a vineyard has long been my dram and in the spring of this year I made a start. Our winters can reach -40 centigrade. I needed a super hardy variety. After a bit of research I chose the Valiant grape. It looks and tastes much like a Concord and best of all has been documented to withstand winter temperatures of -50 centigrade. My kind of grapevine.

I purchased two books: From Vines to Wines by Jeff Cox & Northern Winework, Growing Grapes and Making Wine in Cold Climates by Tom Plocher and Bob Parke. I read them from cover to cover then ordered 10 bare root,one year old vines. They arrived in excellent condition with beautiful long roots. Perfect.

We have no hills on our land so I chose a flat site that gets open sun all day. Formerly a horse paddock, the soil may be richer than the ideal but it drains well and that's my main concern - no wet feet.

This blog is a way for me to chronicle my progress, triumphs and failures. I am not daunted by our cold climate. I'll simply modify my growing methods until I have the vineyard I want.

I work on my novel during the week but plan to post here on weekends. My little darlings are standing in snow right now so I'll start with what I've accomplished this year and what growing tips I've learned or received.

Hopefully some of you will chime in with your own grape growing experiences and tips. See you in a week!

Linnea