One slightly neglected garden. The plan is to turn this area into a small vineyard. I’m not sure how many vines you need to call something a vineyard, but I plan on having about ten, so I think that counts.
Here is a view from the other side
A lot of clearing, digging and raking later
Having spent the last few weeks clearing the whole area, and digging it over, this is how it now looks:
I had to remove lots of large roots which was pretty hard work, and an old pond which still had some water in, and turned out to be the home of five frogs and two newts. They have all been re-housed at the local wildlife reserve so hopefully they are very happy.
I dug the whole thing over as deep as I could with a spade. By the time I had got about two thirds of the way through I wished I had hired a rotovator, but by that point it wasn’t worth it so I just kept going.
The whole thing has been raked out flat and seeded with grass.
The grass is growing!
After only six days, the grass seed has germinated and is growing nicely.
Choosing the vines
There is no way that I will be growing Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon and producing big reds in the UK. There simply isn’t enough sun. I need to choose varieties that will work in this climate, and the best way is to look at local vineyards to see what they are growing.
Our nearest vineyard is Chilford Hall which produces some very nice white wine, my particular favourite being a Bacchus I tried a couple of years ago. There are several red varieties that suit our climate such as Dornfelder, and some modern varieties that are supposedly good such as Rondo and Regent, but I have yet to taste a really good English red wine.
So I’m looking at white varieties, mostly of German origin. I have also discovered that there are several hybrid vines available, which not only have the ability to withstand our cold climate conditions but have been bred for their resistance to diseases such as downy mildew, powdery mildew and botrytis. Choosing one of these hybrids would help me meet my ‘no chemicals’ policy.
That leaves me with the choice of a few varieties: Orion, Phoenix, Seyval Blanc, Sirius and Solaris. I’m not sure exactly how I came to the final decision, but based on details found at Winegrowers Supplies I have decided on Phoenix and Orion. Phoenix gets my vote because it is cross-bred with Bacchus, so it must be good!
Measuring up
Having measured the area and decided that I want to have 6ft spacing between vines and 6ft between rows it works out that I can fit two rows each with three vines. I may be able to add a third row later but for now I’ll go with two rows.
The ideal site for a vineyard has three main features; a south facing sunny slope, well drained soil and rows of vines running in a north/south direction. My garden is flat, has fairly heavy soil and doesn’t get sun all day due to quite a few surrounding trees. Not ideal. I do have the ability to put the rows in with a north/south direction though so at least I’m doing one thing right – although having said that whole north/south thing is debatable anyway, but it makes me feel like I have some control so that’s what I going to do!
The vines have been ordered
I have placed my order for 3 Orion and 3 Phoenix vines with Vines for Wines.
This is a great place I have discovered which will sell you grafted vines in small quantities. Most places seem to require you to buy a minimum quantity of 25. Plus you get great advice from the very helpful guy that runs the company, Jack.
Grafted vines are a good idea as it means that being grafted onto American rootstocks they are resistant to Phylloxera – the disease that wiped out most European vineyards back in the late 19th century. My vines will be on SO4 rootstocks which, according to Winegrowers Supplies is the ‘definitive’ rootstock for the UK which adapts to a very wide range of soil types. It is tolerant of wet soil, especially suitable for fertile soils containing humus, which are not inclined to excessive dryness.
The vines will be delivered sometime in March next year, so I have time to get everything ready for their arrival.
Weed control
From what I have seen in the UK, most commercial vineyards will spray along the rows of vines to give them the best possible chance in life without competition from weeds, but I want to do whatever I can to avoid using pesticides.
I plan on using some sort of mulch material which could be natural such as compost or wood chipping, or one of the commercially available weed suppressing cloths. I have also read that stones can be used, with the added advantage that they retain heat from the sun and help keep the vines warmer in the cooler evenings. Not sure if this really makes any difference, but I think I’ll try it and use 20mm gravel. It should look good too.
Things are shaping up. Posts in, gravel down – I just need the vines to arrive now.
No Orion vines!
I have just received an email from Vines for Wines informing me that there is a problem with supplying Orion vines this year.
I have had a search around and cannot find anywhere else that will supply what I want in such small quantities. I could order 25 vines but it just seems excessive (and expensive).
I’ve asked them to send me 3 Solaris vines instead – this was the 3rd choice on my list. Hopefully this is just a problem for this year and I can get some Orions for next year. That means I’ll have to do some more digging (and shrub removal) to prepare for a third row.
Trellising
It isn’t really necessary to put in all the trellising at this early stage, and it could wait until after the vines are a year old before they need to be trained to any wires, but I just want to get everything set up.
There are so many different types of trellising and training methods that I’m not really sure which method is best suited for the varieties I am going to grow, but I’m going to go for what seems to be a fairly standard approach which is to have one main wire about 2ft off the ground and then pairs of wires at about 1ft intervals the rest of the way up the posts to guide the vines as they grow upwards.
This would suit either cane replacement or cordon spur training systems, and I don’t need to decide on which of these to use just yet. I may try both and see which works best. Or I may stumble over some information that says Orion or Phoenix are suited to a particular method.
I have put in some eyebolts to hold the main wire that will support the vines, and added three pairs of wires held in place with small wire staples.
More sun, less shade
Having watched the sun move across the sky earlier in the year I realised that there is a particular tree on the south side of the vineyard that casts a shadow over much of the vineyard for a large part of the day. This has been bugging me for a while, so after checking that the next door neighbour was ok with it, I decided there was nothing else but to get rid of it.
