Das Vine-Hoff

02Jun09

Today was the epic creation and planting of the Krughoff Vineyard here in Boulder, CO.  You could call it the “Krug-yard” (redundant however, as “hof” is german for “yard,” so really you’d be calling it the “yard-yard,” and that would be boring) or, the “Krug Vineyard” (but then we’d be infringing on these guys–>

Krug Grande Cuvee

Some cellar of Krug Champagne

Charles Krug Winery Napa Valley California

Or you could call it the Vine-Hoff (“vine+yard”). So it’s been decided, it will be referred to as the Vine-Hoff!  And here’s how it happened…

The plan:

Plant grapevines that will 1. look nice, 2. produce enough grapes to one day make a bottle of edible red wine, and 3. grow tall enough to one day hang on the cable rail of the deck over the carport.

The challenge:

Colorado has a few grape growing challenges.  1.  Heavy, clay-like soil around my house.  Therefore, deep ripping via gas-powered auger seemed necessary in order to provide both adequate drainage of the soil through the “hardpan” (super hard soil layer) as well as to loosen soil beneath the vines to allow the roots to penetrate deeply, and the second challenge of climate – Hot hot summers and cold cold winters, so a hardy grape variety is essential.  Lots of time on the Google, and awesome recommendations from Rist Canyon Vineyards led me to pick these…

Two vines of each:

• Frontenac
• Leon Millot
• St. Croix

All mail-ordered from Vermont @ Northeastern Vine Supply.  They’re bare root stock, meaning they look like dead sticks with some roots hanging out!  Already budding as they soaked in water today and slowly warming up over the last few days – I think they’re gonna come through in a big way.  Fingers crossed. It wasn’t a simple process…

Step 1:

Weed it and rake it clean!

Step 2:

Rent a massive post-hole auger from Home Depot (Auger bit modeled by Kevin Suhr)

Step 3:

Put it together and dig some holes!! Yeehaw

Step 4:

Pull it out of the ground, throw out your back, etc.

Step 5:

St. Croix #1 goes in the Boulder soil...

I'm pretty excited, needless to say

Step 6:

All 6 vines in the ground!

Step 7:

Voila! Das Vine-Hoff!! Mulch and weed barrier will hopefully keep maintenance low, stakes and trellis to come soon.

The main pieces left are a deer-net to prevent the local wildlife from snacking on our vines, a seperate zone for drip irrigation of the vines on the automatic sprinkler system of the house, and the permanent trellis system to get those vines nice and high near the deck.  Deer netting tomorrow, irrigation upon return from the 5 day long bike race in Hood River, OR and trellis after I come up with the final design.  Until then, make it go and let it grow.

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