Every year we try to add a new food producer/source to our land. Most of the time we can find what we want or need by trading or, best of all free.ie.”Gardening on the Cheap!
We had the offer of domestic Concord grape vine from family. It was an established 15yr old vine they were planning to pull out & change in landscaping The vine is/was a super heavy producer ….even totally ignored the past 10 years. I nearly cried at the thought of destroying it and asked if we could dig it up. The thought of just ripping it out was heartbreaking to us. We planned to add grapes in the near future so it was a no brainer to at least try. Being Texas transplants and used to 0 yard maintenance they were happy to let us have it. We dug and dug…then dug some more attempting to get the entire root ball. Mercy this thing was big! We left a mini crater in the ground. I’m not sure if it will survive our efforts but it was sure worth the try. We trimmed about 15 ft. of vine from the fence & planted a bunch of the cuttings along the new trellis. I know we way over planted the cuttings but I figure only a few will survive. I’ve been keeping it watered & 1-2 of the cuttings have bits of green showing so I have hopes some may live & our cooler weather is really helping cut down on the plant stress.
Hard to tell but the main stalk is nearly as large as my wrist.
The kitchen garden has done well. I’ve added bits here and there through the season. Mostly herbs & nearly all were transplants or cuttings I was given. Carrots seem to love this soil. The area originally had a sand base under the pool (which I have amended) so the soil is loose and loamy. Beets have done well as have lettuces.
The 1 cherry tomato plant I put in here just took off like gang busters and is still producing heavily.
Lettuce is coming up faster than we can eat it.
There are various mints, sage, lavender, chives, oregano, thyme, bee balm planted willy nilly in and around veggies as I was given the starts. I’ll say one thing, this area has been virtually bug free, although next year may be a different story I’m enjoying it now. I need to get out there and do a bit of rearranging/spacing & separating. I think I want to ring the entire area with lavender. The blooms I want to harvest & dry to use to protect the wool stash from potential moth problems.
Well, The dust bunnies in my house are scheduling a party tonight their friends all come and don’t leave so I need to go break it up now
Have a wonderful day
Katie
I love the opportunity to be able to get free trees and vines. Hopefully, the grape vines will take off and you'll have all kinds of grapes for years to come.
ReplyDeleteYes, free is great~! Hubby and Isaiah LOVE grape jam so I'm keeping my fingers crossed
DeleteHow awesome is that! We have wild grapes our The Compound, and grapes is on our list of must haves, but a bit down the list from some other things. I sure hope they come in for you!
ReplyDeleteThanks Izzy :) Do you harvest the wild grapes?
DeleteA dust bunny party! Is that what is going on? I thought it was just me. I've been hosting one every week all summer! lol ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a score with that grapevine! A very lucky freebie for sure.
Oh, Dust bunnies bread I tell you! I've been sewing like mad and that is really adding to the party LOL!
DeleteWhat luck you had! I love the story.
ReplyDelete