Monday, April 20, 2009

Arbor

The grape arbor is coming along slowly since the heat came on quickly. The little grape vine on the left has little grapes on it! I can't believe it. The arbor is supposed to mirror the style of the pergola (background). It will. The top needs to be completed; but I wanted to post how it's coming along. Once the arbor is completed, we will move on to construction of the garden fence and gate.
By the way, the beets were delicious. I'm ready to harvest another batch and get them pickled. I have had reports from several tomato gardeners telling me (bragging actually) that they have tomatoes already. I have blooms on good, solid plants; but no fruit set to date. The ladybugs continue to do a great job.

2 comments:

Lisa Paul said...

What kind of grapes are you putting in? Remember, you need at least two to get grapes (a vine can be male or female, as needed, but can't self-pollinate for some reason.)

I think we dodged the water-rationing bullet for some reason in Sonoma. We went from dire warnings of mandatory 50% rationing to now 15% voluntary rationing. We've got a well, drip irrigation and drought-tolerant plants, but are still always looking for ways to get by with less aqua. Luckily, the grapes do better with very little water. We even turn it off toward the end of growing season to concentrate the juices.

MAYBELLINE said...

The grape is self fruiting Red Flames from Dave Wilson's Nursery out of Reedley.

Lots of permanent crops may be destroyed on the west side of the valley (mostly nuts) due to the drought. I heard today that government relief of $2 million would be available to help save these crops. I really don't know what money will do...we need water.