Starting Up

My wife and I have always wanted a grape arbor. For our fourth anniversary we got each other the materials to build one in our back yard. We found plans for the grape arbor from eHow.com, and went to Lowe's to follow the lesson exactly. Our charge was to procure six 8 foot fence posts (we chose 4x4s) with the intent of planting them 18-24 inches below the surface (in order to go below the frost line.) We also had to get some wire or thin wood strips for the vines to grow on. We got the materials, which cost about $50, and retired to the house for the real work. Post hole digging is never fun; if at all possible, it is always best to avoid post hole digging. What made it worse was that there stood about a foot of parched clay on my way to 20 inches. It took both of us about four hours with very few breaks in 90 degree heat to dig all six holes. My neighbor let me use his tools, and luckily he also has a pick axe, which, although still very difficult, made breaking up the clay easier. We chose the hottest day of the spring for our project. There was not a large selection at the local nursury, so we purchased one muscadine vine of the Noble variety, a self pollinator. Our prefference would be for a dry grape, but to get started we went with a sweet option. The nursury also recomended a soil conditioner to mix in with the clay. It was about $25 at the nursery. After some disagreement we finally settled on the location for the actual plant, we thusly subplanted it, and began farming. What a rush!