The past two years have been quite dry in this region. And this year has started out much the same. Over the past few days we have received a decent dousing of rain. Not enough to get us back to where we ’should’ be, but it’s a start and it’s definitely helped to green things up.

This summer I plan to expand my agricultural horizons by participating in a community vegetable garden project. I’ve always tried to grow a veggie garden with varying levels of success. My hope for this project is that I can contribute to a nice-looking, productive garden and pick up a few tips along the way.

For the past three years my vineyard has experienced a late May frost. Typically these have come right around May 21st. This year we had a daytime high temperature of 91F degrees on Saturday the 19th of May. At 6pm that evening the temp was still 85F. But by 7:30 it had dropped to 65F and then down to 41F by 10pm! Overnight temps dropped enough that a small amount of frost occurred. I had not even noticed it until Tuesday evening when I was checking out the vines and noticed a couple of very young vines whose leaves were the typical dark green that occurs after freezing. No other vines were impacted though. So I feel that for the first time in three years, I actually dodged a bullet.

I’ve been glad to see the amount of growth that my vines have undergone in the past few weeks. As we neared this third week of May, I have been keeping my fingers crossed as I have had vines get burned by frost this week each of the past two years. Saturday night we got down to 41F - but no lower. And looking at the weather forecast, it looks like I might have avoided a late spring frost for this season. This is good news as it serves to lengthen my growing season a little bit - and every day counts!

Since budbreak, I have had 2 or 3 vines stop growing altogether and it has become apparent that the gophers have been at work once again. I am working on a plan to control the gophers and will share more info once I know what I’m going to do.

This past weekend I noticed that a few of the vines have actually leafed out. The Foch are leading the pack (as usual - hopefully no late frosts) with the Prairie Stars and Valiants coming in a close second. Despite a minor bout of grape flea beetles, the vines are looking great. Two of the three Marquette vines planted last season are a little past bud break stage right now. The third has not done anything, so I’ll have to keep an eye on it.

Since my last post about these little critters, the spray I used seems to have done the trick. I’m seeing very little bud damage to my vines - unlike last year when a portion of my Frontenac crop was wiped out. It seems the grape flea beetles prefer the Frontenacs over most other vines. Although I did see a little bit of damage on the Valiants and Prairie Stars.