Journal | June 25, 2025

Heat Wave

Back in the days before air conditioning much of Washington DC escaped the heat and temporarily settled here in these mountains. Families would stay the entire summer at boarding houses or any place that had an extra room or two.  The men (this was back in the day) would come and go by train each weekend.

In the 1980s, at the beginning of my time here, the mercury rarely showed higher than 90°F. Hardscrabble Vineyard was arguably cool climate. That was then. This week it is probably hotter here than DC ever experienced a century ago.

The vines are taking the heat well. We are not. There is still much hand work to do in the vineyard. We start before sunrise and even then, it is not comfortable. Once the sun emerges from the early morning haze, any energy you may have begun with is quickly sucked out. Needless to say productivity has suffered.

But the vines are fine. This is the period when the vines are most active. They are enthusiastically growing both leaves and berries. Their roots are working overtime pumping water and nutrients up the trunks.

The soil remains moist for now. No drought stress this year. Leaves are dark green and vigorous shoots are reaching for the sky.

But soon we would like the vines to slow down and stop growing luxury leaves. Once the trellis is full of leaves any additional growth is unneeded. It has to be trimmed off. Humans do the job now as the shoots are tender. But this year we anticipate a dense, thick canopy which is physically challenging with a machete or hand shears. Our tractor mounted hedger will be called into service. 

Now we want it to be dry.

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