A few weeks ago we “erased” the small, upper blackberry patch which we had started next to the vegetable garden a few years ago. We never paid too much attention to this patch, and therefore it never produced many berries. Within one afternoon, all traces of the trellis and the brambles were gone. The old rows were plowed and disked, and orange marker paint clearly showed where the new plantings were to go.
The reason for all this destruction was a new order of Niagara grapes, an American white variety of the Vitis labrusca species. Similar to Concord grapes, with a typical “grapey, musky” flavor profile. We ordered 150 plants to give these grapes a try. We planted them the same way as the Traminettes last weekend, with cardboard and mulch, to keep the weeds at bay. They have been growing rather vigorously and within a month, healthy, happy grape plants are visible.
