Do you wish to dine under the leaves? Will you be sitting in the shade or will you be standing? If you intend to cover your yard or patio with it, think of all the activity that happens underneath. Here is an example as to how simple it is to grow grapes right outside your door: How tall should a trellis be for grapes? Use a small structure as a dividing wall, and train the vines to follow the posts and wires. If you have a small garden, there is no reason you can’t grow grapes. This Simple DIY Pergola from is a great place to start. If you’d like to make your own structure for growing grapes, you will find plenty of plans online. It only takes one, two, or three vines to cover a generous space, which will provide you and your family with more grapes than you could ever eat at once! The rest is for sharing, making grape must and jelly. Come pruning and harvest time, you will find out why this system works best.įor the backyard grape grower a well-constructed and placed pergola is a wonderful way to grow grapes. If you are growing wine grapes, do as most vineyards do and plant lines of root stock that follow a supported system of posts and wires. The weight of a fully mature vine will be hard for some smaller structures to bear, that’s why trellises need to be built sturdy from the start. Grapevines grow far and fast in a single season, sending out side shoots (called tendrils) to help them climb along their way. If you are just starting out, know that it takes about 3 years for new vines to start producing fruit, but it is worth having the trellis in place so you can guide the vines gently season after season.

If no trellis is present, grapevines will climb wherever they can, even covering an entire home or a fruit tree.īut that makes harvesting more difficult, and the grape bunches may be more prone to disease as they grow nearer to the ground.įor the healthiest grape crop possible, a sturdy trellis is the best way to go. While 60% of grapevine roots sit in the top two feet of soil, they can extend down into the Earth to a depth of more than 20 feet! With proper care, tenacious grapevines may live to be 50 years old, even growing till way past 100. If you’ve ever come across wild grapes from an abandoned orchard/vineyard or old homestead, you will find that grapes are survivors, often outliving their caretakers. That’s why we train them to grow a bit more orderly with a trellis. And they will run wild if you don’t prune them back in both winter and summer. Plant grapes into your vertical garden and you will be rewarded with a natural privacy screen, or shade, that smells wonderful with its early blossoms.Ĭonsider this: grapes are going to climb whatever they can, be it a building, a tree, or a pergola. One of the best things about grapes is that they are a perennial, so you only need to plant once. If you have plenty of space, you may even get into making your own wine or grape must. The bunches are beautiful, sweet and slightly sour, absolutely delicious, and being such prolific growers, they will provide for your fresh grape consumption year after year. Grapes can be one of the most rewarding crops in your garden!

Grape trellis