Hello, first post here on my new project: an impossibly small, impossibly poorly situated vineyard I'm creating in my backyard in Evanston, IL. I've been a wine drinker for over a decade, and over that time have become interested in the idea of creating it as well. Late last summer my wife and I re-landscaped our backyard, and the new design resulted in an open, sunny strip of ground available on one side of our lot. Seizing my opportunity, I pitched the idea of a row of grape vines to my wife, and much to my surprise the idea was not shot down. Spring has arrived in Chicagoloand, so the time to establish the vineyard is upon us!
Scouring the internet for information on planting grape vines yielded a lot of information, but most is related to larger, more rural vineyards, which have different challenges than the ones I'll face. What I'm envisioning for this blog is an information source (through my own trial and error) for people interested in what I'm trying to do: create a vineyard on the land you already have, reagrdless of whether it's a less than optimal size and location. And of course, you will also get the obligitory blogger rants and raves about other things I find myself interested in from time to time.
Stay tuned for a lot more information: preparing the soil, selecting the grape variety, acquiring the vines, and establishing the vineyard - all of which will happen in the next month or so. In the meantime, visit only website you should ever need if your loves are beer, electronics, and Indianapolis.
