In addition to the trees we brought to the farm from the local nursery last weekend, Amber had ordered several fruit-bearing plants from Miller Nursery in Canandaigua, New York. They arrived yesterday by UPS delivery.
This package contained four pawpaw trees, an extra dwarf bing cherry, an “all in one” almond, and three concord grape vines. The note on the outside of the brown paper wrapper said that if you cannot plant them immediately, the trees can survive in the “state of the art” packaging for up to three weeks. By “state of the art” packaging, they mean damp sawdust and plastic wrap :) I’m sure it’s what they’ve found to work best.
Not wanting to wait, I set about putting the grape vines in the ground, as we hadn’t decided on the placement of the other varieties yet. Siting a tree that will probably outlive you is serious business. There’s not really a lot of leeway to change where it is once you’ve put it in the ground.
The grapes are at the south side of the house, along the fence in a space that gets decent afternoon sunlight. They’re not at the bottom of the slope, as they need high temperatures to ripen and dips in the landscape tend to remain cooler throughout the year.
One of the fascinating things about digging holes on a rural property is the detritus that has been entombed in the earth for who knows how long. In these three holes, I found several small ceramic tiles, rusty nails and other hardware, and a piece of plastic. I suspect that one of the grapes is situated in an old burn site because I also unearthed several pieces of char and some ashy-looking soil.
