When I became your owner, I resolved to care for
you, despite having no skills in viniculture. You are probably much older than
I am, well-established as you are in your Victorian greenhouse.
Next-door's tabby cat likes to sprawl on top of the
seed cabinet beneath your green canopy, and the occasional bee or butterfly
ventures into the greenhouse to enjoy your verdant growth. A young robin
practised nest building this year in the seed cabinet when I had inadvertently
left the door open, but soon gave up, leaving an untidy bundle of leaves.
I have no idea what variety of vine you are. I asked
several people including two landscape gardeners, but none of them knew. You
have distinctive globular shaped grapes hanging in loose bunches, pale green
and sour to the taste; unlike your companion vine with its tight bunches of
deep purple, sweet flavoured grapes.
Last year, I treated the scale insect infestation
which was affecting your gnarled old branches. I wonder if that treatment might
also have halted the damage to your main trunk caused by a variety of woodworm.
A few years ago, I made wine from your grapes. It
was a sweet, syrupy drink, not unlike Spanish fortified wine. It was
surprisingly good, but not at all like the kind of wine I was expecting.
There are very few bunches of grapes on your
branches this year. The spring was cold and there were few insects about to
pollinate your tiny flowers. I now know that I should have used a small paint
brush to hand pollinate them. I will be more attentive to your needs and will
not neglect this task in the Spring of next year. I hope that you will reward
me with a more abundant crop as a result.
October 2013 CP
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