Fleeced

Before…..

Fleeced or, mulch ado about nothing. 

In our ongoing quest for increased sustainability at Smith and Evans, we are trialling a new way of supressing weeds in our vineyard. This needs to be done as undervine growth can decrease yields by as much as 15-20% as it gives competition for nutrients. If uncontrolled they start to run riot and take over. This can be done by simply spraying  funcides but these really aren’t sustainable and kill off everything include the beneficial fungae present in the soil which give it its life. Our current  solution is mechanical weeding. You want to disturb the soil as little as possible and so the trick is to just hoe off the weeds leaving everything else undisturbed. Easier said than done with my tractor driving skills! There are  problems with this. The weeds come back quite quickly as you never get all the roots and, you are burning  up diesel in the process while compacting the soil which makes the spread of vine roots more difficult. 

There didn’t seem to be a readily available solution until people started talking about laying down fleeces. I can never understand why but, British wool has little of no value. Historically the nation made huge amounts of money from trading them and they were a significant contributor to national wealth. Even today, you’d think that there would be a premium attached to clothing made from homegrown wool but, what do I know. If anybody can enlighten me I would be most grateful. Anyway, back to the matter in hand, we’ve got our hands on a pile of fleeces and bit by bit we’re starting to spread them under the vines. Apparently there are additional benefits in that they add nutrients as they rot down and, as they are light in colour,  reflect the light and so help growth. 

It’s a big job to lay them along around 3000 metres of vine but all will be well worth it if it works. Watch this space.

If you’d like to come and see our vineyard, we are open on Saturdays from Easter onwards between 10.00am and 5.00pm for self-guided tours and tastings. Just turn up and we’ll give you an information sheet to accompany you on your walk around our small farm. If nothing else, we have spectacular views! Once you’re finished you can wander down to what was the old cider cellar to taste our wines and cider. The cost is £5.00 per person.