I said in a recent blog that our vineyard was starting to generate tasks and last weekend saw us working away to tackle some of these. Overall the weather has been rather indifferent so far this year. Last year we had a warm March and this got our vines off to a good start. No…
Category: Vineyard
Vineyard 23 : Having a laugh?
I don’t think we started our retirement project vineyard with the idea that it would be a source of amusement either to ourselves or to others, but, in some ways, that is what it has become. Every couple of months the Mercian Vineyard Association (MVA) publishes its own journal / magazine called The Grapevine (see…
Vineyard 22 : The glamour of the vineyard and bird scaring
The months of winter, all quiet in the vineyard. Well not quite all quiet, first there is the on-going saga of winter pruning. I mentioned in a previous blog that I had been a on a course about winter pruning and that I was keen for both of us to get started on this aspect…
Vineyard 21 : Winter Pruning, not as easy as you think
If you’re not, yourself, a vineyard owner, you probably thought there would not be much going on in a vineyard at this time of year. The vines are dormant and so are the owners of those vines. Right? Well, as always in life, the answer is yes and no. In my last blog I told…
Vineyard 20 : Snatching victory from defeat, kind of
I wrote in Vineyard blog 19 about the set back, to put it mildly, we had received in our wine making ambitions. Take a note, next year make sure that we protect the grapes from birds. We had one of our Yorkshire wine makers’ meetings a couple of weeks ago and, high on my agenda,…
Vineyard 19 : Disaster Strikes
It really grates to keep reading what a great year it’s been for grapes. It rankles to hear, on the radio, that there are 50% more vineyards this year than last. Well, you say, you sound a bit – dour. And I am. I haven’t been looking forward to writing his blog but I’ve put…
Vineyard 18: What a month
As Charles Dickens once wrote, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Sums up this month quite well, although perhaps the ‘best of times’ bit was a little under-played. But let me start with the bad bits and see if I can end on a positive note. We had a…
Vineyard 17 : August and a lot happening
I have to begin with another apology. I said the vines were in their second year, they are not they are in their third year, yes they’re just over two years old but this is definitely their third year. Sorry to have misled you. Who cares? Well I do. More signs of encroaching daftness, no,…
Vineyard 16 : we really do have grapes now
Just sneak this in as my July vineyard blog. Hence the short period between this and my last blog. So more on my on-going, vine-related, retirement adventures. The first thing to say, right up front, is that I’ve been talking bollocks. While this may come as no surprise to you it has to me. Simply…
Vineyard 15 : There’s an awful lot to do but I guess that’s good
This, technically, is my June blog but we’ve been so busy actually working in the vineyard I haven’t quite got round to writing about it. I have heard it said that vineyards on average require a day a week’s work for every acre of vines. Well we have half an acre planted in our experimental…