Monday, June 21, 2010

Misty Mornings


The vineyard shed in the mist this morning.
The shed is all things to us at the moment -
cellar door, pump house, working shed and home!
I love this time of the year in the vineyard. Misty mornings, the sculptural forms of the bare vines, currawongs and magpies. I'm a ridiculous romantic and only see the beauty in the vineyard, but Jamie is much more of a pragmatist and just sees a lot of big jobs that need doing.
Bidens pilosa
On my walk around the vineyard this morning, I was delighted by literally thousands of little spiders' webs attached to literally thousands of Farmer's Friends that have taken residence between the rows of the vineyard. Farmer's Friend is also known as Cobbler's Pegs or Pitchforks (such evocative common names!), but its botanical name is Bidens pilosa. It is a native European herb that has become an environmental weed in Australia. It gets into everything at this time of year - the dog, the cat, the sheep, socks, jumpers, everything! I spent a good half hour devoiding Max of the little prickles this morning.
The Framer's Friends and a lot of other weeds have to go. Because the vineyard has been in 'moth-ball' mode for the past 18 months, the weeds have got the better of us, and they will take a lot of work and money to get under control. First we will have to slash every row of the vineyard. Jamie started this job yesterday but within just two rows he ran over some wire (rendered invisible among the weeds!) which got caught up in the slasher which now has to go to the local mechanic to be repaired!
Good Morning Mr Magpie!
When the slashing is complete, we will be able to begin pruning. We will hand prune our precious Sangiovese and a section of Chardonnay but will have to machine prune the remainder of the vineyard this year. It all takes a huge amount of time and money so we just do what we can with all we have at our disposal in money, machinery and man-power. Wine sales are growing steadily so if we keep putting one foot in front of the other we should be able to get on top of the weeds and pruning.
...But I will miss my walks in this wild, untamed vineyard when it is finally brought under control!

2 comments:

  1. The dew-covered spider webs are amazing, and surprisingly picturesque. I don't recall ever seeing so many!

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  2. I have really enjoyed looking over your shoulder....congratulations

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