Guyot...who's he?

Sunday morning was supposed to be trailer day. I figured I would fix Degsy then get the trailer. I did fix Degsy after two hours but not permanently and he let me down. I managed to get home eventually. I took the Zafira instead and collected the trailer and then to the lottie. The newbie allotmenteers were busy on their plot. Their job in hand is turning the soil over and covering the area with tarps to keep to weds down. They seemed to take equal effort and are having fun. Perhaps not fun but deep satisfaction. I said hello and passed the time of day.

I tipped the trailer. Then I filled up the bird feeders. The last job and one I have being thinking of doing for most of the winter, was the prune and tie in the grape vines. Pruning of vines can be done in many ways. the one I elected for is called the modified Guyot system. "modified" because it is not the exact method. Part of the problem is that he Guyot systems is meant for vines grown in a vineyard not as part of a fence as mine are. What is supposed to happen is that you let a single stem grow up from the root stock and when it gets to a certain height the tip is trimmed off and two sets of lateral shoots are trained along a pair of wires. Well my vines have not read the book. I left the vines grow all last year just training them to keep the vines inside the netting and not getting too entangled but multiple stems grew not just one. Last season I managed to lead the laterals along the lower wires. This winter I had enough leaders to train a lateral to each wire. When I had a lateral on each wire I trimmed off everything else. The result is quite stark and the pile of trimming is large. From what I remember of last year's growth the vines will throw off plenty of leaf. It is part of vineyard management to prune off the vines mid season so a great deal of growth must be expected.

I dropped off at Steve's on the way back from the lottie and gave him a bunch of the vine trimmings. He gave me a lesson in hardwood cuttings. I went home and did as I had been instructed with what I had reserved from the cuttings. I tidied up the Zaf and made sure Degsy was locked up. To finish the weekend I got myself a glass of wine whilst the bath drew then I had a good long soak in a mad hot bath and finished off my latest read, Patrick O'Brian's, Treasons Harbour.