This is winter, I guess…
Mowing the fast growth of the cover crop. It’s hard to keep up and this is the easy part.
Well, we’re supposed to have a few days left of winter… but the cover crop sure doesn’t know. All it knows is 90 degree weather and it’s time to grow, grow, grow!
Only a week or so ago, we had cool mornings with low clouds. It was a beautiful way to greet the new day. Now it is warm in the morning… in that, “it’s warm now, but you just wait… see what the afternoon will feel like” kind of way.
Life would be so much simpler if I didn’t have to mow under the trellis lines.
We recently visited a beautiful winery up in Napa. The wines were good and the grounds were immaculate. Notice how the ground underneath the irrigation lines and trellis don’t have a single weed. In short their vineyard management team has sprayed under the vines to prevent weed growth. I’m jealous of the beauty, but we are choosing not to use sprays for weed control. This isn’t a comment to disparage others (this place produced great wines) by any means, it’s just a philosophical difference we are taking with a more organic approach. There is a downside to not using sprays though…
The downside to not using sprays for weed control. Hours upon hours of this. There has to be a better way.
The cover crops we planted were quite happy. They grew well and grew fast. It was a mix of plants to help promote healthier soil in a number of ways. If you are really interested in that sort of thing drop us a note or stop by. We can discuss for hours over a glass of wine.
However, it does take a toll on the back. Using a weed whacker all day isn’t something that I would recommend. “Poor man’s golf” is how a friend’s father describes it. However, I don’t recall liking to golf for eleven hours on a Saturday, let alone too much quality time with the Stihl. There’s no drink cart wandering the vineyard asking you if you want a drink or a sandwich either.
It is quite satisfying to complete the mow of a block. That’s what I tell myself at least.
The satisfaction of a freshly mown block of vines is pleasing to the eye. In this case, Block 4 which consists of Sauvignon Blanc and Albarińo. You can see in the foreground we did aggressive pruning of some of the Sauvignon Blanc in order to promote a healthier vines.
We’re thinking this is the answer to my weed whacking woes.
After lots of conversations and quite a bit of reading. We are thinking four or five (not six or seven) Babydoll sheep might be the answer. They are basically miniature sheep that would act as a natural lawn mower. Crop goes in and natural fertilizer comes out. Seems like a win-win as they would keep growth under control and their output helps with microbial soil health in an au natural kind of way.
Yes, it would mean shearing and caring for animals but the tradeoff would be hours saved doing weed control and we would enjoy a more biodynamic process for the vineyard. I would also save on fuel and line costs by not having to use the weed eater machine or tractor as much.
The theory is that they could be in the vineyard year round… if we had trained our vines to have the cordons a little higher but I don’t think that is the case. At least they would be able to do cover crop control from harvest to bud break which would be a big help regardless. More to come on this subject later.