Grape Vine and Garden Update

First, the grape vine.  Finished pruning back the vine to take the shape I wanted.  I have three main vines trailing up to about five feet and have run wire across the trellis for this years growth.

Here's how I have been replanting some of the pruning to try and root some more vines.

You can see below that I've trimmed the piece of vine into two sections with two to four solid buds on each one.  Also, at the planted end, I stripped it to the core before dipping it into the 'take root.'

I was pretty liberal with dipping the root end.

And here, the finished product.  Only about 38 more to go!!!!!!

For the Garden, first the potato's are coming in really well.  Every planter potato has bloomed.

I've prepped the 5 foot by 5 foot bed that the Three Sisters is going to be planted in.  I added 3 forty pound bags of composted cow manure and mixed into the top 4 inches.  Watered it well and am letting it settle.  Plan is to plant the corn the 24 of February.

The first casualty of the year is one tomato plant.  The two year old fell and butt planted on one of the Manaluce tomato's!  No worries, I've got four more.  The cucumbers have all started to appear and I moved the bag to take advantage of the trellis by the 4 by 4 bed (top right corner of the photo below).

Lastly, here's two heads of cabbage I started from seed in the garden in October.  The heads are about the size of baseballs so these should be ready in the next four weeks.

Took the plunge

Ok, I took the plunge.  The weather has been so good and the outlook is continuing to be better so I said what the heck.  I put the okra and the tomato's into the garden today.  With the way the weather is looking I thought I would take a chance.  We'll see how this pays off.

You can see in the top left, I pruned the olive tree and have planted 3 cuttings with a root actuator so I may get three more tree's.

Gearing up to prep the grape vine

I had always heard that Texas is great for growing vines.........just not so great at producing quality grapes.  When we moved-in in 2010, we decided to try and grow a vine.  Bought it at Lowe's and put it in.  I knew it wouldn't be until the 3rd growing season until we would see any grapes.

Summer 2012 was the third.  The vine began to shoot leaves in early March and buds appeared.

By April the canopy had come in nicely.

June 4th the grapes began to change color.

The best part about growing them was my son eating them like he was Cesar!  It produced about 12 lbs......after the birds got their initial share and I netted it in!

I never pruned the vine since inception.  I am going to drastically prune it this February.  I learned that grapes won't develop above about 5 feet so all the extra vine was a waste.  I buried a section of vine last year in hopes that it will root and I'll have a second vine.

When I do cut this one back I'm going to replant 30-40 shoots in quart containers and expand the grapes.  I'm going to work three levels on the trellis and see how it goes.