It was a bit warm and the sun was shining insisting that I go and wander outside in the garden. There were those rampant grapevines calling out to me. It was the perfect day to prune them. I knew that I had to prune them very severely, so I selected one strong cane to tie to each of my six wires and cut them back to about 4-8 buds each and removed all of the other canes as close as possible to the upright stem. A few days later when the weather was less pleasant I sat down to write a page on the website about home garden grapes and started out by doing a little research. I quickly discovered that maybe I should have done that research before I attacked my vines. I hadn't done it totally wrong but it certainly wasn't correct. Apparently there are several different pruning styles and I had followed none of them. Luckily grapes are very rampant growers and are very forgiving and I can correct my mistakes next winter, I had come close to creating a 6 stem kniffen and I didn't even know what a kniffen was. I really should learn to read the instructions first.


The onions are all germinated in the basement and now I have trays that look thick grass growing under the lights. A few days ago I seeded the first of the other early vegetables, the Broccoli, Cauliflower some Pak Choi and Kohl Rabi. Most of those seed packages were last years so I put two seeds in most of the cells to allow for some reduced germination. I'm always amazed at how many germinate even when the seed is older. Of course in most of the cells that had two seeds they both germinated. The failure to germinate usually occurs in the cells with only one seed, a true example of Murphy or Sod's law. After just a few days on the nice warm germination bed they have germinated and I get out my little snips to eliminate all but one seedling in each cell. It's important to do this as early as possible to give each seedling the maximum room to grow.