The Vines

Not only are food plants amazing, they're also mulit-talented!

Today I'd like to introduce you to my vines:

My front door is in there somewhere...

Our front deck faces NorthWest. Which means it's full of beautiful mid-afternoon sunlight in the winter, but also very warm mid-day sunlight in the summer.

The only thing that can help you make you comfortable in both of those situations is a plant. If we had covered our front deck in colourbond, it would keep us nice and shady in summer, but would make it seem cold and uninviting. So, instead, we planted three grapevines. A deciduous plant like a grapevine loses its leaves in winter, and grows a thick canopy in summer.

The biggest we planted long before we ever considered a life of food growing. We built the deck in the early 2000s, and put in the 'ornamental' grapevine at pretty much the same time. It's now got two impressive trunks (and a lot of established growth).

Grapevine trunk (and its weed friends)

Of course, being an ornamental grapevine, the grapes are pretty awful. They're quite sour and full of annoying pips. The birds love them, and sometimes the bees, but they're not really all that good in a fruit salad.

Th old vine, on the northern end of the deck.

So, when we got a little more serious about growing food, we cut the old vine back, and planted two more vines at the opposite end of the deck. They're both red grapes, seedless, and very nice to eat.

The view from here....

Of course the best thing is that as they have all grown bigger and more dense, they have provided a lovely, sheltered space right outside our front door. In winter we can sit there and soak up the sun, but in summer, it's a lovely shady space. The air moves freely through the leaves and branches, but they still block out most of the sunlight. It can get pretty messy, but it's nothing a sweep can't fix, and the dead leaves are just more good organic matter to put back into the garden. And - bonus: they give us some great privacy!

Now, we just have to wait for the grapes to ripen!