World garden blog carnival. Gardening for the new year

Time for the carnival. I hope we get a lot of nice posts to showcase.

I have a lot of projects coming for this year. And one of the most important is my grape.

My grape fading into winter

I have always wanted to grow a grapevine in my garden. But, I always thought it would not happen until I got a house for myself. When I started my little garden here I considered buying one for one moment, but then I thought there would be many problems when caring for one in a small balcony and I kept coming up with excuses not to do it.

Even when growing on a small container grapevines can spread quite far. And since I don't have a permanent house yet, I didn’t wanted to risk having the grapevine climbing all around a balcony and then having to move and loosing all the effort from that year.

I hope I can train my grapevine like this

But, one day when I was at a library looking at gardening books (And I mean looking because I cant read that much japanese, so I usually only look at the pictures) I saw a very nice photo of a grapevine growing on a small pot, all coiled around itself and with a lot of fruit hanging. The pot could not had been more than 15 cm tall, and the hole plant looked under a meter, but yet it had a lot of fruits. It had never occurred to me that was possible! Back in my country I have always seen it growing big, even when in a small pot. I don’t know why I didn’t thought of it before.

I already set it up for starting

I looked around more in the Japanese books and the same layout was in almost all of them. They all explain more of less how to do it. I guess in Mexico we don’t try because we have the space. But here in Japan, where space is a luxury some times, growing mini grapevines is common. That is the good thing about traveling, it helps expand the horizons and think outside our own box.

Just have to keep the branches in order
and make some good pruning

So having no more valid excuses, I got my grapevine. I also got a nice planter and some bamboo sticks to make the frame. The plan is very simple, let only one or two branches grow, keep it coiling around itself and prune a lot to keep it tight. Hopefully next year I will have it set and I will get some nice fruit our of it. The original photo I saw in the japanese book only had one level of "circling", but my planter is quite big so I think I can get away with a "two stories grapevine".

By the end of the year it should be ready

Oh and also, some time later I saw them in person. They had a couple in the garden center. I have even seen a bonsai grapevine with some fruit too. That should teach a lesson about thinking out of the box.

Now is your turn, What are your gardening plans for this new year?

For the blog carnival, please input the link directly to the post you are submiting in the widget below. Just click the blue button that says add your link.

Remember it must be a post about what do you plan on doing at your garden this year, maybe about one particular plant you want to have, a renovation you will do, a special patch you will grow, a new gardening technique you will give a try, or any other project you have prepared for this new year.

If you have more questions about the carnival or you want to add a link to this page click here to go to our carnival main page. There you will find more information and some resources you can use.

Or if you want to see past carnivals click here.

Also, add a comment if you like and let us see what your garden is bringing this new year!