What it means to have a small Holding

Here's the theory for July: It's cold or at least cool, it could be misty in the morning and even drizzly rain, the fireplace is ticking over with hot coals or a fresh piece of wood flaring, a bit of a wind gusting outside and the sky is grey. Time to spreadeagle on the lounge with a one of the many books backlogged in the pile and relax.

Now here is the reality: The sun is shining, the wind has gone for the moment, the grapes need pruning and weeding, tomato varieties need selection and potting under heat to be ready for a September planting, there is a pile of other fresh pruning's that need a run through the mulcher and there will be a need for lots of compost in spring so make use of all the green material you have.
 

The book goes back on the pile and work begins. All the grapes get pruned, a little layering or transplanting of last year's cuttings to fill a spare spot. Tying up any rogue shoots, a quick weed around the trunk and on goes a huge pile of cow rejected silage which stinks but the wind is blowing that scent across to the neighbours and away from us. Oh well, the smell will only last a few weeks. It is just part of nature in the country. Probably means moving a bottle or two of last vintage from our side of the cellar to the neighbours side of the cellar.

Table grapes pruned

Ready for chipping and mulching

A lot of work and tons of silage but will pay dividends

Using the freshly made compost to start seedlings

 

July can really be one of the busiest months of the year. At least in August it will only be the last week when the Tomato bed needs building that life will become a little hectic. Then of course with September becomes the planting out of the warm month vegetables. Always too many for two but there are always many happy recipients elsewhere in the village. There is the anticipation of the first fresh tomato and first young cucumber. Yes it is possible to use a hothouse and grow the most delicious produce all year round but then the mouth watering wait and abstinence is missing and life lacks those peaks and troughs that provide contrast and highs of long awaited pleasure.

As the weather warms up and if the rains come the following 6 months become a blur of weeding, watering, planting and harvesting until the blessed cool arrives with a sigh of relief tools go down and relation comes in the form of wine and cheese in the mildly warm garden.

The steady rhythm of seasonal demands and rewards. With each bringing the expectation and desire of the next stage. Maybe some find this repetitiveness boring. But there is a pleasure which can't be felt from any other form of activity. Contact with the soil, plants and animals seems to be a desire that comes from deep inside.

For some it's the travel, the sport, the toys for us it's being at home on our own plot, digging and weeding, having successes and having failures, plopping down in the evening with fresh home made produce and resting for tomorrow.

Pruning Stone Fruit

One of the tips picked up recently was the concept of pruning stone fruit foliage once the fruit has been harvested. This means a Summer not Winter pruning. The advantage is faster healing of the cuts and less chance of infections. The practice is to remove one third of the foliage, fertilise and deep soak. A useful link is Canberra Organic Growers Society and also ABC Gardening Australia  as well WA Department of Agriculture and Food Each of these provides a little extra information to round out the understanding of the art of pruning.

Pruning a few trees in Summer also means that the work load is spread over multiple months and seasons a real bonus in a busy garden schedule.

Many years ago we watched an episode of Gardening Australia which featured a gardener in southern Tasmania. He had pruned all his fruit trees so that the limbs were all about shoulder and head height. This allowed him to harvest the fruit without the use of steps or ladders and as he was in his eighties and living alone it seemed like a worthwhile practice.

 

We also try to get the pruning completed in most years with limbs within arms reach. For us attaching Fruit Fly exclusion bags is much faster if both feet are on the ground. Removing them when the fruit is ripe is also much quicker and simpler if you are not climbing up and down a ladder.

 

 

Fruit Fly Exclusion bags have worked extremely well for us and the cloth bags have also protected the fruit from birds and bats. The bags are best affixed just after the flower has finished and the small green fruit has just formed. Any later and the Fruit Fly will have already done its bit. It is quite simple to wander about the orchard each day or two with a bucket of bags inspecting the flowering trees and slip on a bag over any newly formed fruit. This gradual process takes away the tediousness of performing the task in one sitting. We keep the knots simple. Just a tightening of the drawstring and a single knot is sufficient. occasionally we will use a bow if the bag is hanging down so that it doesn't slip off.

Removal is not all that difficult. By keeping the knot simple the bags come of with ease. A wheel barrow with a container for the fruit and one for the bags. Making sure the bags have been shaken out to get rid of leaves and spiders they are allowed some time to dry if damp and then stored in a vermin proof container until next year.

And the Ferds have discovered their Christmas present. It took a while to work out how to get in. But once in they are like little kids cavorting in the pool.

Vineyard Pruning

That time of year again. Started pruning in the Vineyard as all the leaves have dropped. The table grape vines around the house are still covered in leaves probably because of the heat generated around the house. Only a few of the orchard trees have dropped which means we can prune a few things at a time spinning out the workload.

After pruning the vineyard we will try grafting (again). There are some Isabella vines which are unsuitable for wine making and every year an attempt has been made to graft Chambourcin to Isabella rootstock. Having tried two grafting methods both have had a success rate of about 1%. So there is a technique here that we have definitely not mastered.

During vintage we noticed at a commercial vineyard that whole sections had been grafted successfully. Some inquiries added some additional knowledge which will be incorporated into our technique. The main piece of knowledge was when bud grafting leave some original buds which will burst and provide life to the vine until the new graft has taken. The original buds need to be trimmed so they don't get out of hand. We'll see how we go. We haven’t try top grafting before so maybe that is another experiment. The few successful grafts are very vigorous.

Our vineyard has a rock platform about 600 mm bellow the ground and the roots grow sideways not down. They say to make good wine you need to stress grape vines, well these get really stressed especially if there is a dry spell. Fortunately we have access to plenty of dam water.