Grape vine before pruning
Grapes need a good pruning each year. They produce more grapes when properly pruned. While there are different methods for pruning grapes, I keep grape pruning pretty simple. I focus on a number of “lead” vines and hack pretty much all side shoots off.
Grape pruning after
Grape vine trimmings
As you can see, I clipped off a lot of the plant, probably more than 50% of the total vine volume. You really shouldn’t be afraid to give a grape a good hard prune.
Above you can watch professional guidance on the topic if you want to go beyond my basic approach.
Orchard mason bee condos
Exciting news! The orchard mason bees have arrived just in time. A local mason bee expert uses our yard to harvest mason bees each year. Steve, the bee guy, dropped off the bees this week and they’ve already hatched. We benefit from having a nice colony of bees in place to pollinate our orchard and Steve gets to keep all the baby bees for next year. It’s a great arrangement.
Tomato, pepper, basil, and corn seedlings hardening off
My babies are growing up! Today was a nice sunny day so I took my seedlings out to the greenhouse to begin hardening off prior to planting. Just in time, too, because I need to start seeding the next wave of crops (cucumbers and squash) ASAP!
Thermometer
And I’ll end today with a recommendation for a great garden tool. A thermometer! A number of plants require the soil to warm up to certain temperatures before planting. The easiest way to find the temperature is with a basic digital thermometer. This is a simple, cheap kitchen thermometer, but it does the job well.
Sandy
