Grape vines will cover a structure like that fairly thickly over the years, might be hard to prune and maintain. I built a simple 4 posted gazebo once, planted four seedless grape vines at each of the posts, and over the years trained the grapes over the top, which had a loose lattice cover. The grape vines covered it in around 5 years, so you could barely see the structure below. It was useless as a garden house, because the birds were thick above it, leaving a mess below. The more over grown and dark it became, the more spiders took over inside, until the children avoided it. Without pruning and thinning, the grapes were abundant, but with really small berries. Only one of the grape vines had grapes worth eating, but it was the birds favorite as well. Luckily a windstorm blew it over, and we replaced it with muscadine vines on a trellis, which is pruned, thinned, and trained regularly. Adding the other annual vines the first few years sounds like a great idea, as long as the grape vines have lots of air around them for circulation and sunlight. The link below has instructions for rooting grape cuttings, but IÂve had good luck just sticking them two nodes deep in a large pot of potting soil. Let us know how your project is progressing. Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Grapes from Cuttings

Hi Backyardener. Triomphe d'Alsace is a winemaking grape commonly grown in British vinyards. I thought I'd give it a try as I'm constantly making wines of one type or another. I'm not as worried about it as the other two as it's in a different property with it's own south facing 40ft wall to grow up and as much root space and depth as it needs. The seedless varieties are a different story, placed in the exacts spots I've lost the other vines in successive years. (A previously very healthy Lakemont and purpurea come to mind, also several Actinidia have failed in these spots.) Where I've planted them is about 15 inches of topsoil directly over the foundations of two pillars, roots would have to search horizontally for a short space before they could get any more depth and I know grape vine tap roots can go very deep so maybe that's the problem. Perhaps even more likely is the presence of a good number of crane fly larvae in the area. Whether these are entirely to blame or not, I've had healthy plants dying from root attacks several times. It's a south facing position but on a north slope, whereas the ground may be inferior to a south slope, I reason that an established plant should be just fine and they also get a full day's sun, I also have a row of gooseberries here which have suffered from too sunny a spot (not to mention some kind of leaf stripper). IIRC, the vines that have died here have started budding normally and put out about 1.5 ft of growth in the spring, then they seem to slow right down till there's no new growth and by autumn the early year's growth looks a bit worse for wear but not dying and they go dormant never to come back. I'd say they they decline and give up rather than show signs of disease though. I'm not sure if Pierce's disease is present in the UK, I've never seen the insect that spreads that in my life though we have our fair share of clear winged insects and leaf hoppers here. Pretty stumped why my vines would deteriorate and die like this but if it's for lack of nutrients or attacks by pests and diseases, I'm determined to try and stop it happening this year. Thanks for the reply. Mark

Thanks Suzie for the link! Very interesting! Are you sure my grapes would not do well for you in CA? I believe they are good to zone 9 atleast. I ordered them from a place out that way I believe. I should have plenty left if you want to try some. I had an idea. Since my fridge is in a cut out type cabinet, I cannot really get the cuttings up there. However, I do have a heat mat that I use to germinate tomato seeds. It is a very low heat. Do you think they would be good on the heat mat? I remember when I was rooting figs for the first time (figs, my first love!), someone had suggested using a heat mat. How do you feel about this? Well, they are all wrapped in their garbage bags. Hopefully a few will make it! I did use rooting hormone on some of them. I had so many, I figured I could experiment. Well, all 3 vines are in the ground. I planted them yesterday. Hopefully they will take. I also dug up a rose bush that was at the house that my mom planted when I was a baby. I do not know how that will do. I did re-plant it here at my house, but the leaves were already limp. I wonder if roses can survive that. I also took a few cuttings from the branches, only about 4. I read to stick it in rooting hormone then into dirt with a soda bottle on top of it. They said to keep a few leaves on them, but the leaves are already pretty limp. I do not know much about roses, so I do not know if they will survive or not. That would be a shame. Although this bush is over 30 years old, it was cut way back, almost to the ground a year or so ago, so it was not as big as you would think it should be. It did have this huge, deep, long main root that I had to cut at one point since it was down so deep. Well, I will update on the grapes, and also the rose bush. thanks again for all the info! Christy

Da thinking have Hatching eggs if any of you need them As they will be laying soon fingers crossed purebreds in Rhode Island Reds Silkies blacks buffs Silver Laced Polish Ducks Pekins, Muscovies, Runners. Lots of others but have to build some breedings. ML