Concord Grapes Came Back

I was very pleasantly surprised that my concord grapes came back this year. However, I think they are only producing leaves and no fruit. Lots and lots of leaves!

Cam and I were reading that grapes need well-drained soil to thrive. I'm afraid those boxes really hold moisture well. The soil seems to very damp inside, so the square foot boxes were probably not the best place to plant those grapes . . . Oops, it's a bit too late. I guess that's a mistake I'll have to live with.

I do wonder how much the grapes have rooted since last year. Is it too late to transplant them somewhere else? Would that kill them?

I think the soil may be contributing to why they are not fruiting but instead growing lots of new leaves. Opinions anyone?

Concord Grapes

When Cam and I bought our two grape plants last month, they looked dead. They were both on sale, but we didn't have much hope for them. They looked like sticks in a pot. We took a chance, and we planted them. Amazingly, they started to flourish within a few weeks. The below picture is of our grape plants 2 weeks after they were transplanted.



The right plant looks much healthier than the left with its beautiful green leaves. You can tell the left plant was starting to form leaves. (Bottom center of the photo: there's something green that's growing near the grape plant. We didn't know what it was, and we were afraid to uproot it. Does anyone know what this is? Is it a weed that we need to get rid of?)



In the above picture, the right grape plant continues to grow at a steady pace, and the left one is beginning to catch up.

Above: Our grape plants today. You can't even tell where one plant starts and another ends. Their leaves have overlapped beautifully. Unfortunately, there are no grapes yet.

Below: In the middle of the photo, we think that is going to grow into a grape bunch, but it's growing so slowly that we're beginning to get concerned. Does anyone know how long it takes before the grape bunches to start form?


The leaves on the grape plants are still climbing grape trellis, but only the left plant (the one that grew very slowly in the beginning) has started to form the grape bunches. I'm not sure if I need to be concerned yet, but I think I'll need to do more research. I really would love a productive plant.

In Vietnam (where I was born), my parents made and sold grape wine. I'm hoping that if these grape plants are successful, I can learn the trade and make my own grape wine. Not for commercial use, but it might just be something fun to learn to do.

My SFG Garden Beginnings (Back Yard)

In April of this year, my boyfriend, Cam, and I decided to start a square foot garden together. I had just gotten laid off from my publishing job (The economy, structural changes, etc.), and I was about to start freelancing writing and editing full-time. I was coming over to Cam's house more often, and it seemed to be the perfect time.

We had talked about starting a square foot garden in the winter. We're both into eating more organic foods and enjoying what God has blessed us with. (We're Christians, by the way). A SFG seemed to be a perfect fit for us. Cam lives in a subdivision, so we don't have acres of land to work with. A SFG was the most convenient in terms of space.

So in the middle of April, Cam went to Lowe's and purchased untreated wood boards to build the square foot garden boxes. He built three in total. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photographs while he was building it, but here's a photo of me standing in front of one of them. (This was at the beginning stages of our garden. Only one SFG box was in use at this time.)


After Cam finished building the boxes, he and I went to Lowe's and Home Depot to buy small plants and seeds. We wanted a vegetable garden, and it was definitely a challenge to find a variety of vegetables. It seemed that all the lawn and garden stores had rows and rows of tomatoes, but not much else. But eventually we were able to get the variety we wanted.



We started with concord gapes and a few tomato plants. Then we moved onto lettuce, carrots, onions, bell peppers, oregano, zucchini, watermelon, lettuce.