I chopped up the grapevine prunings nice and small so that they will compost down so much quicker than if I had left them long and whippy. They are perfect for the compost heap because they are woody but still have a bit of juicy sap in them. I’m getting excited about the end result just thinking about it……..goodness, I’ve turned yet another blogpost into a compost promotion; how do I do it?
What I am trying to get across is that you really ought to crack on with with grapevine pruning now because leaving it until the new year may result in the vine ‘bleeding’ – and you really don’t want to be that cruel do you?
I won’t go into the process because there are hundreds of fab books and websites out there that describe it so much better than I ever could (RHS publications every time for me) – but, believe me, it’s easy and most vines will be forgiving, so don’t be scared.
I love a puzzle so this mess was right up my street:
Somewhere in the middle it looked like this:
And by the end it looked like this:
A very satisfying couple hours spent in the winter sun. I established a framework with spurs at regular intervals, pruned back to two buds, along the longer, horizontal, lateral stems. Easy peasy.
Now, when am I going to regain the sensation in my fingertips? It was freeeeeezing today!