Grapes

Good morning! I'm sorry I haven't been here in a few days.  It is raining here (again), and we have been having internet problems for the past few days; sadly, I haven't been able to access my blog. I woke this morning, though, to a bit of access. I'm not sure how long it will last, but I'm going to try and squeak out a post while the going is good. 

I was strolling through my garden last week, checking out the progress of my delicate seedlings...such a rewarding feeling to watch the tiny plants and seeds grow and  mature, yet, extremely discouraging when something doesn't do well...enter the story of our grapes.

Twelve years ago when my garden was still a baby, Hubby and I bought three grape vines and planted them along the fence in the front of the garden. They were beautiful plants, covered with baby grape bunches.  I was so excited.  I had visions of lovely, green vines covering my garden fence, laden with beautiful purple grapes.  Much to my chagrin, however, the plants didn't do so well. They quickly diminished from robust, healthy plants to spindly, weak vines.  Two have died, and the other has barely been hanging onto life for the past eleven years, never producing another grape.  I'd almost given up on growing grapes until last year.  My daughter and I were browsing the plant nursery, looking for a few annuals to fill in the empty spots of my perennial garden, and I game across the grapes.  I couldn't resist...they were beautiful!!!  I just had to try my hand at growing grapes one more time.  I purchased two of the healthiest plants I could find, one northern variety of green grape and the other a concord grape.  I planted them on either side of my newly Hubby-built pergola that frames the entrance to my vegetable garden.

I faithfully watered, weeded, and fertilized the new grapes.  I even hand-picked Japanese beetles from their lovely leaves, determined to help my new vines flourish.

Imagine how relieved I was to find new green growth on the vines this spring after the long, rather harsh winter we had here in New England.  My twelve year old vine even showed a little promise...I didn't expect him to survive another winter, but he had!

Not only did he survive, but look what I found...

...glorious, beautiful, wonderful baby grapes...not just on one plant, but on all three!!!  Yes, even my old, failing plant has its first baby grapes in twelve years!!!  Can you believe it???  I'm still in shock!  Oh, and each plant has at least three bunches...one plant has more!  I'm so excited!  I walk out to my garden daily, even in the rain, to check on those tiny, precious baby grapes. I'm praying that I can post an update in a few months, showing off large clumps of round, juicy ripe grapes.

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by my little corner.