KW-09 A new vineyeard

For 2028; an excellent vintage.

It is probably true to say that if you’re a keen gardener or grower, you probably have a shelf somewhere pitching and yawing under the weight of a considerable and higgledy piggeldy collection of gardening books, and in the winter, we like to pick from them and re-browse, cup of tea in hand, a selection of the experience contained within.

Marilyn on full tilt

As much as they are an invaluable source of knowledge, they are a bottom-up history. King and Queens did not know dirty hands and cold wet feet. A significant battle, a significant date to be remembered in the future, these have no place in the garden. Every sentence, picture, or thought is an unveiled memory of social history, time and place. Gardening books should not be underestimated as a primary source of the lived experience of the past.

One of my favourite books, a 1950s general vegetable-cyclopaedia, resolves in some detail the author’s self-aware scepticism of a new all-purpose cure-all wonder-remedy being celebrated by his less suspicious, unnamed peers. His distrust is written large, and the struggle between backward thinking Luddism and an incautious embrace of all that is shiny and new is a delight to read. The catholicon in question? DDT.

I spent some time this week, disheveled and shivering (the sky did not warm up as promised until yesterday, the ground is still frozen), flipping the pages of a book called “Gardening Techniques” and for some reason, the story of grape pruning caught my eye.

I like pruning fruit trees and cordons. I have an espaliered apricot, trained against a wall. I have no fear of the secateurs. But for some reason I’ve never had a feel for pruning grapes. Maybe because it is actually more technical, less intuitive. Maybe it’s because I have never super successfully grown grapes. Historians of The Barracks may draw their own interpersonal conclusions as well - probably not unjustifiably.

This might not look like much to you, but for me it is easily the most satisfying thing I have done this year. And until the completed erection of the long-trailed tomato house, it will continue to be. What is it? It is a perfectly pruned three year old grape vine. There is exactly one person I know who reads this who I know FOR SURE knows more about growing fruit than I do, but any one with opinions, please voice them in the comments!

But on this reading I got it. I really got it. I picked up the pruning scissors, ambled outside and stood before my 4 grape vines, contemplating slowly. First I cut all the leaders so that they did not overlap. Then I selected the best two, removed the rest, and finally, spur pruned to two buds the four strongest stubs from last year. And that is ist It has been a while since I have done something (really well!) in the garden for the first time. It felt great. And as soon as I had finished, I realised that that spot of ground in full sun that I have been wondering about for the last few weeks leapt fully formed and purposeful into my recollections. And the New Vineyard was born.

I gathered up the cuttings, took them to the polytunnel , trimmed them, cleaned them up, dipped them in rooting hormone and potted them up. With a little luck then, the barracks will have a vineyeard after all!

Grape vine cuttings. The plan would be to have either 48 or 60 vines - a long call of the 1400 that were being planned for the OG vineyard. Also, I’m going to do half table grapes, and half wine grapes. I think a 100 bottles of wine should be fine in a year, and perfectly manageable by hand. More than that requires expensive industrial bits and pieces. And 30 kilos of sultanas a year would certainly help.

In other news, I cut all of the tenons in the horizontal splines of the tomato house, and started on the mortices for the uprights. I would like to lay the wild claim that I will have them done by next week, but I will not. The kid brother is here, and we are making the shelves for the library. We have two days. Wish us luck!

And once again, the clock has run out and I have to go and feed the pigs. I am also going to go and take some pics of the vines and things, and I’ll post this afterwards. Sorry it’s a bit late, but hopefully I can get this out to you before you start your week proper.

I hope it is a good one for you, and you find satisfaction and usefulness in all that you do. And with much priratey love, until then

You loving Pirate Ben

xoxo