I have a grape arbour over my back patio. My father loved grapes and grew them for many years in Australia and I’ve inherited his love of the grapevine, if not yet his skill in keeping them pruned.

Grapes have the advantage of growing very well in early spring and covering an area in shade leaves, while dropping during the winter and allowing light to come through. This is good for our north-facing house as we don’t get a lot of light during the winter months. However, it brings with it a couple of issues: the first is the sweeping necessary to clear away the fallen leaves which for a few weeks each year adds a little burden. The second is more tedious and involves dropping and dead grapes littering the patio and becoming squashed underfoot. The yellow jacket wasps which at this time of the year are missing the hatched grubs feeding them (look it up!) and searching for sweet material, infest the bunches and make a real nuisance as they buzz around drunkenly.

We can’t yet use the grapes as they are largely sour. This is because I haven’t mastered the art of pruning grapes to bring out the best flavour. Hopefully, with the vine trained over the large pergola which forms the arbour, I will now have the space and time to create some sweeter grapes!

I cleared away approximately three bags full of  solid grapes – last week when I took the other half of the arbour to the recycling centre I think the staff wanted to try them! I advised against it, but have no idea what happened when I left…

The tidy-up has produced a large mound of grape trimmings which awaits a trip to the green waste bin at the local recycling centre, and then on to actually pruning using the rod and spur (also called the cordon) system. Hopefully this will produce better tasting grapes next year, along with a covering over our outdoor patio during the summer months.