We just moved into a new house (yay!) and now begins the process of …the yardwork. The previous owners hadn’t done much, so right now the back yard is a mix of overgrown crab grass, bald spots from dog pee, a fence on the verge of imminent collapse, and a grape vine.
Somehow, this grape vine managed to thrive in a zone 3 yard. I suppose it’s due to its location - a sheltered nook against a south facing wall. Unfortunately, it’s planted right over the gas meter, and is starting to wrap itself around the meter.
My thoughts are:
Attach a wire trellis to the wall to train the vine up, and trim away parts that might interfere with the meter.
Dig it up, and plant it somewhere else.
Will digging it up kill it? It’s a total miracle that I have a healthy grape vine in Calgary as it is!
Grape vines are actually pretty tough, and they have an extensive root system. I’ve successfully transplanted mature vines…being careful to dig up as large a root ball as was practical. However, if it’s growing well in a sheltered place you might be better off to leave it in situ and just train it away from the meter. If you do decide to transplant, I’d strongly advise you to wait until early spring, before it breaks dormancy, then be sure to water it in well.
SS
After going outside and looking at more thoroughly, I’m leading towards training it. We plan to have a deck by that wall, and I think that it would be nice to sip a drink next to a wall of grapes!
Now off to plan a deck around the gas meter and Grapey the grape (Vinny the Vine?)
You might end up sipping a drink on a deck of blue bird shit too.
I don’t see your grape vine being able to be trained away from the meter, you’re going to have to cut it often. But, it can take the cutting. Just don’t assume it’s going to stay away.
As the owner of a resuscitated grape vine - I didn’t move it but it was growing on the ground when I bought the house and I built it a trellis - I would say that you could move that sucker and it would be just FINE. I haven’t done a thing with my grape vine (albeit zone 6, where we do have wineries) and it’s as healthy as a horse. I regularly spray parts of it with RoundUp, on my way to spraying poison ivy, and the vine just gets bigger and meaner every year.
You don’t have to move it but you will have a lot of bird shit on your deck, and it very well might be blue and staining.
I can honestly say that slippery blue bird shit never once entered my thoughts while determining what to do with this thing!
Grapes are such a rarity here that I don’t even know where to start looking after it. Although, I’d like to think that if I was the one who planted it, I’d pick a better location.