|
Planning |
||
|
7th August 2009 - We
found Henry, our 20 year old ex race horse (raced as ‘Henry’s First’), dead
at the end of July, we assumed he had a heart attack, having found some burnt
embers in the field today I now think he was struck by lightning. The spot where we found him is
the perfect location for my Vineyard (A south facing slope) which will be
known as 'Henry's Field'. Initially I will be using about
a third of an acre, I plan to install the trellises over the winter which
will consist of 100 8ft poles and 2 kilometers of wire, and then in the
spring I will import 500 vines from Germany, half Rondo, half Regent, both
hybrid red wine grapes that are designed for our sort of climate.
|
||
|
7th August 2009 -
The Master Plan
|
||
|
8th August 2009 - I
did a Ph test on the plot this morning, it appears to be very alkaline which
I believe has some effect on what rootstock we need on our vines, at least it
means we don’t need to add lime to the soil. The soil is clay with about a
foot of top soil then several feet of lighter clay with chalk and flint in
it.
|
||
|
16th August 2009 - I
stumbled across a useful web site at http://www.meadowgrove.com/ documenting
Andy and Ali McLeod’s installation of a vineyard a few years ago. I got in touch
with Andy about my plans for a sanity check and he has pointed me at an
article at http://www.winebusiness.com/wbm/?go=getArticle&dataId=58458 which
has literally turned my thinking around 90 degrees. Vines are now on order for
spring planting from a chap called Simon Day at http://www.vineandwine.co.uk/, he is
going to ship them in and sell them to me for £2 each they will be a year old
grafted on to a root stock that can cope with our soil. Looking ahead
assuming no major disasters I have worked out we can open our first bottle on
my daughter’s 16th birthday (April 2013)
|
||
|
18th August 2009 - I
spent some time down the field and added a few peculiar and one quite
alarming find to my archaeology collection, I'm convinced that someone used to
live in my paddock a long time ago. I phoned the local sawmills,
Southill at Biggleswade today for a quote for trellis poles, I was really
surprised to find they produce them as a standard item £2.40 + VAT for 8' x 2
to 3" inch poles. Will need 150 of them now after the rotation rethink
but as the second biggest item apart from the vines £414 is OK The reason they are so well
geared up was revealed when I got the membership list through from the East
Anglian Wine Growers Association, which I just joined. Turns out that the
only other vineyard in the county is at Southill Park. Before I start putting the
trellis up I need to make some effort to improve the soil, my research says
that Gypsum is the best soil balancer followed by a good dose of ‘Fish, Blood
and Bone’ fertiliser (More Bone). The technical expert at http://www.rootwise.co.uk is
going to give me a call on Monday with suggestions on the best product to use
and more significantly how much to put down.
|
||
|
19th August 2009 -
Frustrated that there was nothing I could get on with doing towards the
vineyard, other than research at this point I modified the useless boom
sprayer I got for my quad bike a few years ago into a horizontal vine
sprayer, the paddles could also be attached to the rear tray for strip
spraying.
|
||
|
21st August 2009 - I
didn't realize how Arthurian this photo would look. He has suggested I kill the
grass and weeds in the strips and then get a local farmer to run a subsoiler
through them. Having been a horse paddock for at least 20 years it is
incredibly compacted and needs breaking up. If I do this in the next couple
of months the winter frosts should break up the soil nicely, then I can just
finish them off with a rotevator before planting in the spring. He offered to do a cost price
(£30+VAT) soil analysis for me, so with hammer and a bit of metal tube left
over from when I made my gates I got a jiffy bag full of core samples off in
yesterday's post.
|
||
|
21st August 2009 - I
phoned ‘Tubex’ today for a quote for tube guards for my vines, to protect
them from rabbits etc. They supply most of the green tubes you see along the side
of bypasses protecting the new trees. Having owned small parcels of
land for nearly 20 years now I have become accustomed to the disinterest you
get when trying to get advice or small quantities of material from large
agricultural suppliers. I have now discovered the magic
word, almost as effective as "Abracadabra" was for young Aladdin.
The word is "Vineyard". I don’t know if it pushes some primeval
button, or if it is the romance attached to growing grapes for wine or if the
word is just simply sexy but as soon as you utter it people are interested in
what you are doing and doubly helpful. The very nice lady at tubex
talked me through their product range, told me how much I should expect to
pay at retailers and sent me some free samples of their new ‘Eco-Vine’ tubes,
which I should be able to get for 38p each.
|
||
|
22nd August 2009 -
Possibly putting the cart before the horse, but I was in an artistic mood
today, so designed a label. All the EU tosh goes on a separate label on the
back.
|
|
|
|
28th August 2009 -
Soil analysis has come back, not sure how to interpret it yet, first thought
was how surprisingly accurate my £2.99 ph tester from the garden centre was.
Much googling ahead.
|
||
|
MILESTONE 18th September. Invoice arrived from Vine and Wine for the 50% deposit for our vines. No going back now! |
||
|
2nd October 2009 - I
took my 'finds' to the council archaeologist and Bedford museum, they both
agreed that there was nothing remotely interesting about them. However, they did send me an
aerial photo of my place taken in 1996 (3 years before I moved here) which
reveals two areas of archaeology, to the north-east and south-east of my
house. A dig revealed that they are both 1st century Roman
settlements, The southern one is where I walk my dog most evenings, it has a
superb view across the local countryside and would have been the perfect
place for a garrison, being just a mile from the 'Great North Road' (A1) The
northern one is at the top of a south facing slope, I wonder if it was a
vineyard?????? Click on the photo for a hi-res
image. |
|
|
