Building Trellis

Last weekend, we experienced 90 degree days and blue skies in APRIL! The weather was gorgeous. Danielle went down to Oxford, NC on Friday to ride Huck and stayed down there until Saturday afternoon, so that left me own my own to get in trouble! Saturday morning, I got up and went to the Lynchburg Community Market to do our weekly farmers' market shopping. I love this time of year at the market because each week there is something new and fresh as we are just starting to get into the main part of the growing season. I picked up a loaf of semolina bread from the bread people (I should really learn their names), fresh asparagus, some pink lady apples from John Cunningham, and pork chops from Faith Farm. If you live in the Lynchburg area, you should really try the pork from Faith Farm. It's some of the most flavorful pork I've every had. I also bought some Muscat Wine Jelly from Cliff Ambers at Chateau-Z Vineyard.

Cliff sent me home with a couple bags of grape seed. They are seed that he's collected from several open pollinated grapes in his vineyard. I need to get them in the ground this week now that the ground has warmed up to a good germination temperature.

After the farmers market, I headed over to tractor supply to pick up feed for the chickens and cows (I'm beginning to realize our weekly feed budget is higher than our grocery budget). I also picked up fence posts for the trellises in the Spring Mill Farm Vineyard. I only had one row of trellis up from 2008 and got another row up on Saturday.

installing trellis posts in Spring Mill Farm vineyard

Danielle was home on Sunday and was great help when it came to sharpening the posts and marking them at 24 inches from the sharpened end. That way I don't have to guess how deep they are as I'm driving the posts in the ground.

As I've been learning about vineyard establishment, I've learned that there are two schools of thought about weather to install the trellis posts or plant the grapes first. In either situation you are going to have to navigate around one or the other. Most people put their trellis posts in first and then auger the planting holes for the grapes. I've chosen to go the other route and plant the grapes first. This way I can drive strait down the row, straddling the grapes with the tractor as I'm installing the posts. This only works while the grapes are very young and have not developed shoots. This weekend, the leaves were out but they had not gained significant height and I was easily able to clear them with the tractor.




I was able to install the trellis posts for all five of the rows that I've got grapes planted in. I still have enough cuttings to fill maybe two more rows in Spring Mill Farm Vineyard.

four rows of posts in so far!

We're also seeing lots of green signs of life in the Chambourcin vines at the Naked Creek Vineyard. Spring is definitely upon us!

signs of life in the Chambourcin vines at Naked Creek Vineyard

The beautiful weather of late has also been great for the strawberries and lettuces we've planted in raised beds. We've been pinching off the strawberry blooms this, their first year, so that they will be more vigorous and produce more berries in years to come. The lettuces came from James Henderson at the Lynchburg Community Market and are looking great.

strawberries are blooming



freckled lettuce



too bad we had to pinch off the strawberry blooms