The message
from Chris Boulby contains these words:

It was the old-fashioned way of planting grape vines. They are in natural
soil and receive rain water - unless of course you have to take a hand
during a drought. Sounds a good approach to me.
Of course, where you live depends on whether or not you would need to
protect the roots in winter - I'm sure others can advise you on that.

Does one really need to protect grape roots in winter?

No.

If so, what
from? I know they grow successfully in the Niagara fruit belt in
Southern Ontario, where winter can be both severe (down to -20C at
times) and sometimes quite wet if the snow thaws. The main reason for
growing grapes here under glass may be to give them more summer warmth
to ripen them, but others may know more than I do about this subject. I
have grown them completely outdoors when I lived in South Yorkshire, and
even managed to ripen them. We only got three bottles of wine from our
one vine :-)

My vine at the other place survived really low temperatures - it was as
cold outside as my deep freeze was inside one night in (IIRC January
1979) - there was ice on the walls inside the house.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
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