The vining nature of grapes and their love of bright, hot conditions make them very useful to plant against structures that need protection from the scorching summer sun.
Other benefits from planting against buildings include an extended season due to the sun warming the solid surface early in the spring and late in the fall and a cooling effect in the air between the leaves and the building during hot summer months thanks to transpiration of water from the plant and the subsequent evaporation of that water (similar to the functionality of sweating when people exercise). This technique is sometimes used for trees and is referred to as espalier.
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A fruit tree trained espalier.
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We were able to plant the grapes prior to developing a support system because they are planted small and trained up the training system as they grow, so we have time to decide upon the best method of support. The grapevine which was planted in the fall of 2009 is a concord grape (click for nutrition facts for the fruit or the leaves).
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A view of the back of the house, where the grape vine will be.
A shot of where the grape will head up the wall.
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The design feature that was decided upon was a wire system anchored into the masonry of the first floor of the home.
It was extremely difficult to find examples of this kind of system, but we wanted an effective passive solar element to shade the masonry and the south facing window in the summer that would also provide tasty fruit just a few feet from the back door. We could have built an arbor to span the window, but did not want to lose any space to vertical support beams or create shade in the winter when every bit of sunshine is needed to help heat the home.
Grapevines growing above windows, trained to anchored wires.
With a specific idea in our minds, we searched the internet and searched and searched. Finally through a Google image search, we found a picture of what we were looking for.
The site we found was a German site that has all sorts of information about putting together these types of systems. To get all you can from the site, you must go to the different pages (which aren’t in English), copy the url, then go to Google and paste the url. The search results will offer to translate the pages, then you can navigate through the site and understand what you are looking at.
The German site also sells the anchoring systems. We are looking into reproducing this kind of system or possibly purchasing one of the setups this site offers.
On the same site we also found a beautiful example of a supportive awning for the vines to climb on. We have not decided whether or not to include this in our design, but it is something else to think about.
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An awning designed for growing grapevines.
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