Trellises

Finally, the raspberries and grapes have their trellises! Last year I could only pick about 2/3 of the raspberries because of the way the branches fell over. And we have never harvested any grapes.

The job went much faster with the new post hole digger.

The grape vine trellis had rotted away years before we moved in and the grapes had taken over the arborvitae for support.

I found these cool gadget called wire vises that make stringing and tightening the wire supports so much easier. They work like a chinese finger trap. The wire goes through in one direction only.

There is a predrilled hole (1/2 inch) in the T post that accepts the end of the wire  vise.

The wire is cut flush with one end and has a little tail on the other end to tighten up the wire as needed.

The grape vine trellis is just three posts with two holes drilled in each post to accept the wire supports. The raspeberries have two cross pieces attached to each post at 24 and 48 inches with the wire at the ends of the cross pieces. Most of the Mennonite farms in the area have similar raspberry patches and we took the design from them.

We had a nice surprise when we received the package of wire vises from Orchard Valley Supply. Turns out our niece works for them and packed our package and this was written on the back:

Our niece moved to North Carolina years ago and we had no idea where she was working.

Now the raspberry patch is nice and tidy.

Just in time for a bumper crop in July.