This is the native grape of Southern California, Vitis girdiana, and I planted it two winters ago. Grapes grow like grass fires! The first year I tied it up a string that I hung from the fascia board. This year I tied it along a wire that runs parallel to the fascia board, fastened to eye screws and held taut by a turnbuckle.
That’s the end of its training. Now I’ll only have to prune it up each winter so the winter sun can hit our windows and warm the house, and so the view of the mountains is preserved.
Here is the grapevine shown above, now dormant and pruned up in the winter of 2020/2021:
And here is an additional grapevine that I’ve grown over another window on the house (photo taken at same time as above):
A grapevine does this job of summer shade far better than other plants I’ve tried. Beans burn out before the summer is over, tomatoes require planting, training, and pruning every year, and passion fruit isn’t deciduous. Also, believe it or not, I’ve only given this grapevine a little water every couple weeks through the summer. Looks like I’ve found the winner.
The view each morning from inside the house looking out is now so much softer than the straight summer sun; it’s of glowing grape leaves.
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Thanks for this post! Exactly what I’m looking for as I recently moved to a place where the afternoon sun blasts our house, heating it to approx. one zillion degrees.
Where did you get the grapevines, and were you able to purchase them at full size, as depicted, or did it require time to grow to that length?
Hi Norm,
The best time to buy grapevines is in winter when they are available as bare-root plants.
Those specific grapevines on my eaves I started from cuttings that I took from wild grapes growing in a ravine near my house though, so they started as tiny sticks. It took a couple years for them to start shading the windows significantly, but now they grow so vigorously that I prune them frequently through the summer and I don’t water them at all.
Thanks a lot, Greg! You inspired me to look around, and I got a few potted grape vines (about 5 feet tall) at Home Depot the other day. Fingers crossed they make it. I’ll keep my eyes out for bare-root plants this winter too. I aspire to shady eaves such as yours! 🙂
I just popped a grapevine cutting in the ground on the southside of our house! I wasn’t sure what I would do once it got up to the eaves, but I like this idea! Can you describe how you would ‘prune it up’ each winter? Do you mean cutting it back to the horizontal vine that’s parallel to the eave? Thanks!
Hi Esther,
Yes, that is what I meant. I’ll add a photo of that tomorrow so you can see how it looks here in winter. Best of luck with your cutting!
Oh that would be super helpful, thanks!
Added a couple photos, Esther. Best of luck with your grapevine!
This is brilliant! Thank you Greg. We have two south facing bedrooms with an ugly privacy wall 10 feet away. Now I know what to plant. My chickens (who live in the backyard) ate the last grapevines we had!
Great article and pictures. I have seen how beautiful the California grape vines look in spring and summer. They do tend to shed a lot when going into dormancy, correct? I plan on ordering a couple from native nursery Moosa Creek. Native West Nursery in south San Diego should also have them. I plan on using cattle panels to have them growing on a pergola and shading a long south-facing retaining wall that reflects the East county heat. Calscape.org says that the California Desert Grape is native to my area.
Hi Maureen,
Yes, the grapevines do drop all of their leaves at the end of the year.
I like this setup, simple and inexpensive. However, the question I have is. How do you ensure the new growth always gets pointed downward and not spiking upward. Thank you!
I just prune off any shoots that are going in a direction that I don’t like. For me, this includes toward my windows, up under the eave, and straight out away from the window. This is how I get an organized “curtain” look.