This was no easy project. I started pruning and maintaining this formerly neglected and very overgrown grapevine several years ago. It had been installed a few years earlier, but had never been pruned. Its first pruning may have generated two pickup loads of debris, as well as a dozen or so layers, which were shared with neighbors. I then trained its new growth to span horizontally over a lower deck, from a rail fence that it originally grew on to a parallel banister about twelve feet away. It was like a pergola without a pergola. The problem is that the banister needs to be painted. After training the grapevines for years, I needed to remove them.
1. It looks simpler than it was. Vines needed to grow long enough to reach from the fence to the banister. They then needed to be pulled across with a cord and tied onto balusters.
2. Between the fence and the banister, the vines required no support. They were pruned annually while dormant for winter, and groomed for summer, so did not get very heavy.
3. The vines sagged somewhat, but had plenty of space downstairs to do so. The banister to the left is horizontal. The fence to the right slopes downward away from this vantage.
4. From the same vantage without the spanning vines, the scenery is now very different. Old vines will get pruned for neater confinement to the fence while dormant this winter.
5. The vines formerly shaded the pavement downstairs nicely. This area gets quite warm without shade during summer. That was partly why we wanted these vines to span here.
6. As severe as this pruning was, it will be a bit more severe while the vines are dormant this winter. Vines will not extend so far outward, and may not cascade downward either.
This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/
Tony Tomeo 
A lot of hard work!
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only to be removed.
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I love the concept of a “pergola without a pergola.” What a great idea–until of course something needs to be painted.
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Yes, it was saddening to remove it.
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Are you going to be able to train it back to the baluster after it’s been painted, perhaps with some way of unhitching it next time.
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No. Initially, I intended to cut them from the balusters, but leave enough of the ‘hook’ in each vine to attach them back into place afterward. Then, I was told that they were not to be attached afterward, and that I would need to cut them back to the rail fence.
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Vines, arghhh.
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This one was splendid. I had worked with it for a few years. It was saddening to remove it.
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I love the idea of training them around the banisters! Grapevines are so daunting, I have admittedly been avoiding pruning the one trellised to our outbuilding, but it is truly monstrous now. I’m afraid a giant chop job is in the cards next spring 😦
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This grapevine did not leave me much choice, since it had grown wild for many years. If I had planned it better, I would have pruned it more severely, and trained it to be neater from the ground up. It does not matter now though. The part that will remain will be the gnarly part that I should have replaced. Oh well; I should relax rigid my gardening style anyway.
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