Young Oak Vineyards: Volume 51 - Happy New Year!

Hope you have had a most enjoyable winter holiday with family and friends! With last year's wine aging away down in the cellar, its time to start thinking about the vineyard again.

Here is my "2010 Vineyard To Do List":

1) Plant roses at the ends of the vineyard rows. These are more than pretty decorations! The roses act like a "canary in a coal mine". If a disease or a pest is going to affect the vines, it will attack the roses first. And, as the vines are more hardier, this gives me a chance to fight back before it attacks the grapes!

2) Winter pruning of the vines (every year). Got to get them into the proper cordon shape for maximum grape production!

3) Mulch the cuttings from the vines as well as from the rest of the garden with my new chipper/shredder I got for Christmas! Gotta keep it green!

4) Deal with the gophers! I lost six mature plants to these varmints last Fall! But I am trying to embrace the little buggers as they are really good for digging up the compacted soil, like mini-rototillers!

Well, that ought to keep me busy for a while!

From down in the vineyard &

"Wishing You & Yours the Best for the New Year!",
John