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Preparation in 2001
When
we first moved in the previous residents of the fields hadn't yet moved
out due to foot and mouth restrictions. Mike and Diane's Pot Belly pigs
had enjoyed many years snuffling around but hadn't made much impression on
the length of the grass. So when they eventually were able to leave we
invited Maggie to put her sheep on the two paddocks for a week or so to
get the grass down to a manageable length.
The
next stage was to remove the fence between the two paddocks. This took a
day of hard slog with a wrecking bar and sledgehammer. It is always a pity
to remove good fences but there was no way I could run economic rows of
grapes in such small areas. Also as the pictures above show, the perennial
friend the nettle had chosen to colonize the areas along the fences so I
also had to spend many hours spraying to kill them and the thistles off
before winter. One final job for 2001 was to spray off 3 foot wide strips to
start to clear the ground where the vines were to be planted.
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