Hellbore Hollow-Vineyard shade garden bloom time late winter early spring

Hellebore Hollow Shade Garden

Planning interesting and unusual pardens is an ongoing project . One first  looks at the natural site and figures ways to extenuate it's most natural strong points.  I had a large amount of young hellebores given to me by their breeder the most   energetic interesting knowledgable Barry Glick of Sunshine farms in Resnick West Virginia.  Barry developed the hellborus orientalis variety and many many improvements since. In fact he has developed some double upfacine hellbores that are frankly stellar to the point you salivate.  Now Barry is an interesting cat imagine a brilliant botanist (the latin nomenclatures are flying) mix in  a bit of jewish east cost agression , yenta, and work ethic, enthusiasm for anything once,  libidinism, and  odd mix of Willy Wonka and jerry garcia on sunshine blotter and you have somewhat of an idea of Barry Glick.  Hellebores a fabulous winter blooming (jan-March depending on temp) that like a somewhat shady spot. My hellebores have gone from tens to hundreds of thousands and they are a great sight in late winter early spring when everything else looks rather grey and desolate.   with colors of purple, pink, green yellow, black, and red   which  provide an early treat for the voracious honey bees and  dark green leathery leaves. I have left mine reseed at random so their offspring is  a delicious unruly mix. To breed properly  one polinates the chosen flower with a pollen filled brush from the chosen father and covers the flower with a bag so no other unworthy suitors will approach it and taint the specific quality genepool you are hoping to replicate and expand upon (also it's easier to gather the seeds).  I have generally left them to reproduction of fate a la nature and so my expanding hellebore hollow is a grand variety. I chose a spot under several large hanging maples near the bank of a the lovely swamp. The drainage is pretty good because the hilled mounds around the trees are higher than the edge of the swamp.  Now hellebores generally prefer a more basic ph soil but they seem to do quite well in my south jersey extremely acidic location and i've never limed it. Soon the shade garden will start to pop with hundreds of others shade lovers  like ostrich and cinamon ferns (Osmunda cinnamomea)  betwixt numerous varied hostas, astilbe,  and various self seeding water iris 168 stevens st Willow Creek Farm and Winery. Hellebores have been used as a pharmaceutical garden base for centuries and will be included in my jardin de la morte.

Moles in the Vineyard enemy or friend? Pest control on the farm!

Male mole (boar) peeking at grapes!

In the Vineyard I was dismayed to see huge mole tracks and tunnels. Was this going to damage my roots? Should I hunt and exterminate the mole? As an animal aficionado I decided to do a bit a of research on the mole . The Mole is an extremely interesting highly specialized animal. What I discovered is that the mole is actually not a rodent but an insectivore. Meaning it's main diet is  earthworms and other small invertabrates found in the soil.  So did this mean my vines were not at risk?
Mole History the name mole started as  mouldywarp, a name echoed in other Germanic languages such as German (Maulwürfe),^[5]  (muldvarp, mullvad, moldvarpa where the muld/mull/mold part of the word means soil and the varp/vad/varpa part is a descendant of the old-Nordic word for throw), hence "one who throws soil" or "dirt tosser. Makes sense to me.
Moles  throw the dirt making their burrow in lawns, raising molehills, and killing the lawn, for which they are sometimes considered pests. They can undermine plant roots (young plants with newly established close to the surface roots), indirectly causing damage or death.  However, contrary to popular belief, moles do not eat plant roots. It also appears that they really don't damage deep established root systems like the ones on my grapes unless there is way too many of them.
Why do my feline friends or resident coyotes and raptors ignore the mole and shrew or occasionally hunt but not eat it ? Although the mole can be eaten, the taste is said to be deeply unpleasant ! (I personally have never tasted the mole nor do I have any immediate plans to do so.). Because their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyze earthworms, moles are able to store their still living prey for later consumption. They construct special underground "larders" for just this purpose—researchers have discovered such larders with over a thousand earthworms in them. Before eating earthworms, moles pull them between their squeezed paws to force the collected earth and dirt out of the worm's gut. Pretty cool meal preparation really.
So  now I will set up a watch system on the mole population. As they tend to reproduce in March and April if there is a mole increase I will have to trim the herd (actually a group of moles is called a labour) if truly necessary   I have decided that I will attach a pvc pipeline contraption to the exhaust of my tractor and pump it into the mole burrows. This is will probably reduce a number of weaker moles and keep it under control with out full extermination.
So while not being as much fun as "Whack a mole" at the boardwalk " I have discovered a possible solution.
Looking forward to drinking wine and sharing tall tales at the farm! Visit us at 160-168 Stevens St. West Cape May New Jersey. bhbw

Tending the Cabernet pampering the younger vines

I have another 6000 Cabernet vines that will be producing heavy fruit this year .Proper pruning  helps eliminate the amount of unproductive wood and encourage
the production of fruit compared to the overall leaf growth each year and voila lots of excellent grapes. 

How do I prune my grapevines after the first year of growth?

In the first growing season, remove all fruit and unwanted lateral shoots
from the young vines throughout the growing season. Grapevines tend to grow
rapidly from the apical end (main growing point) when lateral shoots and fruit
are removed. Vines should be staked and tied  to allow
the new shoot to form a straight trunk . The leaves should remain on
the developing trunk to produce necessary carbohydrates to feed the plant; all
lateral shoots, however, should be removed. Only lateral shoots at the top wire
will be left. New growth may reach the top wire (around 5 to 5-1/2 ft.) during
the first year. If this occurs, pinch off the end of the shoot(s) at the top
wire and then the lateral shoots will grow horizontally in both directions along
the top wire. These will be used to form the new cordons. Pruning of
one-year-old hardwood (dormant canes) will be minimal, but some pruning may be
necessary to help shape the vine before second-year growth begins.

How do I prune my grapevines after the second year of growth?

Remove all fruit and any lateral shoots that emerge along the trunk of the
grapevine. If vines did not complete their structural development in the first year, be sure to train new shoot growth so that the grapevine will completely cover the
intended area along the trellis or arbor.

Once the lateral shoots have grown along the top wire to the desired
location, pinch the terminal ends of the main lateral shoots (on the top wire).
This will force secondary shoots to develop along the two main laterals laid
down to established the cordon. The cordon is a permanent structure that exists
on the top wire, from which hardwood canes (hardened-off shoots) are pruned
Lateral shoots that emerge from the cordon should be allowed to grow
uninterrupted. Only necessary shoot positioning should be done to direct growth
in an orderly manner.
During late February or March, each one-year-old cane (dormant cane) that
grew along the cordon should be pruned back to either a three-, four-, or
five-node spur (fruiting spur) or a one-node renewal spur (vegetative spur). The
remaining fruiting wood should be approximately pencil size in diameter. Renewal
spurs produce vegetative shoots that are used for the following year�s fruiting
wood.


How do I prune my grapevines after the third year of growth?

Year three is the first fruiting year. Dormant pruning should be done some
time in late February through March (Figure 3a and 3b). One-year-old wood
(dormant canes) should be pruned back to three-, four-, or five-node spurs
(Figure 4). The spurs should be evenly spaced along the cordon and pointing
downward.

To determine how many buds to retain for fruiting, weigh all pruned
one-year-old wood. Use the pruning weight to count the number of fruiting buds
to leave. You may choose to use different approaches for determining the number
of fruiting buds to leave. One system is the 30-10-10, which requires the person
pruning to keep track of the weighed prunings and the number of buds remaining
on the intact vine.

How do I prevent my grapevines from becoming a tangled mess?

Many times grape gardeners find that the one-year-old canes have become
intertwined along the trellis and are extremely hard to unwind for pruning. This
can be controlled somewhat by shoot positioning. It is very similar to combing
hair.

Once green shoots are developed enough (approximately mid-July), each shoot
can be placed in an orderly position along the entire cordon of the vine and
parallel to the vertical trunk. Combing or shoot positioning can help to reduce
the overall number of tangled shoots and can increase light penetration into the
vine canopy. Increased sunlight exposure will promote good quality fruit, better
winter hardiness of canes, and more productive canes for next year�s crop.

Summary
Grapevines need proper training and pruning during the first three years.
Once they start producing fruit, annual pruning is needed to maintain the
balance between vegetative growth and fruit production. If grapevines produce
too much fruit in one year, they will not produce a good crop next year and
could suffer winter damage. If grapevines produce too little fruit one year,
they will produce too many shoots and leaves that year.

Felines and the symbiotic relations of animals and plants on the Vineyard.



Grubs on the old farm truck



In lovely (semi rural) picturesque West Cape May we have a lot of resident animals both wild and domesticated.  Coyote, fox, beaver, racoon, opossum, millions of our avian friends( from warblers, plovers, hawks peregrin falcons bald eagles great horned owls , blue herons, egrets oh my this is for another post) rabbits and rodents. Really this post started as a train of thought on rodent control on the Vineyard. Earlier in 2010 I had 14 additional furry friends dropped at my farm. Now I have always been a big proponent of the feline but 14 seemed a tad excessive. The group (or pussy posse) consisted of the offspring of elvis (a tiny black cat the grandmother) her immediate offspring the enourmous quad of tuxedos boots, thor, grubs(short for grubbage -perrenial hungry) (who each owned the biggest fattest tails seen on a short haired cat)and their sister gretl the only female and mother of seven  smeagol and fleagol(two small shorthaired black identical) methophiles, growltiger, and valentine(three enourmous lion like main coone varietals,) and gristlebone and botxy two pure black silky main coon types. Addtionally Princess yumyum and fluffy.  Needless to say I thought oh my what to do? But surprisingly enough they each had their own highly social super friendly personality. But best of all not a rodent in site! We have always has issues with field mice, burrowing moles and shrews, rabbits nibbling the veggies and the occaisonal water rat getting too friendly with the chickens but no more. This winter not a rodent to be seen except the occaisonal corpse left as a gift at the door. Not a mouse dropping or gnarled on pantry item to be seen. Even the racoons and possums are staying out of the immediate house perimeters. These feline friends have earned their keep! Besides being gorgeous and delightful they are workers! The fact that many of the native carnivores have been removed from the land had left the rodent population run rampant but now it's nicely in check. Better for vines, fruit and vegetables. Oh an interesting genetic anomaly the four long haired kittens have the odd plus of  having furr that smells like a flowery perfume ( akin to light lilac)all the time. It's just a weird genetic curveball but something I've never encountered before. I would think it would be an interting trait to breed for. The short haired relatives do not share this trait. Either way though I will be keeping population control with the help of animal outreach I should think that we should a least maintain some of the unusal perfumed cat genetic stock. But hey, I am a gardener and a scientist so I always want to reproduce the best traits! So if you want to encounter a strange but true animal fact stop by at Willow Creek farm and take a peek (or a whiff) of a sweet scented  kitty!

The Vineyard in the Winter

One would think that like the bear in his cave we at Willow Creek Vineyard could take the winter  off enjoying the time to sleep and relax. But no, winter when the vines are in dormancy is the time for the all important task of pruning. The amount and choice of pruning directly effects the growth of the plant in the new growing season and the amount of grapes that are produced.
 A brief synopsis of winter pruning .
When master vineyard managers prune, they should remove the majority of wood produced the previous season – until about 90 percent is pruned off," said Wilde.
The time to prune grapevines is from January through the first of March, when the grapes are dormant.
There are two types of grape pruning—cane pruning and spur pruning. Mature plants should be pruned yearly to remove all growth except new one-year-old fruiting canes and renewal spurs.
Grapes are produced from buds that will grow into shoots on one-year old canes. The most fruitful canes will be those that were exposed to light during the growing season. These are thicker than a pencil in width and as close to the trunk as possible (when cane pruned) .
To cane prune, select two to four new fruiting canes per vine. Cut back each of these to leave about 15 buds per cane. For wine grapes, leave about 20 to 30 buds per plant. In table grapes, leave 50 to 80 buds per plant. Leave a one-or two-bud spur cane near the fruiting cane with one or two buds each. These "renewal spurs" will produce the fruiting canes for the following year and thus maintain fruiting close to the trunk. All other cane growth should be pruned off.
Most table grapes produce the highest yield of good quality fruit when cane-pruned.
To spur prune, prune along main canes to leave two- to three- bud spurs, each four to six inches apart. Leave no more than 20 to 80 buds per plant, depending on the type of grape. Remove all other one-year-old wood.
Needless to say this is a tremendous amount of work and the cut canes are piled 20 ft. high throughout the vineyard. The leftover canes are excellent for making baskets. They also are considered the best wood for barbequing.  .Pick up a bundle to enjoy the epicury delight of vine smoked grilling  For more information on attending onsite classes on growing and producing your own wines contact Willow/Creek Vineyard at Willowcreekwinery@gmail.com.    video link http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBMQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFBK2qDO-srE&ei=PzhdTZzhIsSugQf7g7GpDQ&usg=AFQjCNFy3MUjEItFFHuBz-5W26XHcePMXg