I love the idea of sitting under the grapevine. My grandparent had a concord grapevine arbor. The arbor was over a stone patio which had a table and chairs for family meals.

I never realized how much work must go into maintaining the arbor until my grandparents went away one summer. I donÂt know if it was the birds feeding on the grapes or if they just fell off the vine on their own but there were purple, staining grapes EVERYWHERE! They started to ferment (and smell) and there were flies EVERYWHERE! The table and chairs were unusable because they had sticky rotting grapes allover them.

My grandmother told me I had to wipe the table and chairs a couple times a day and sweep at least once a day to keep the grapes under control. I know they had a large arbor and it was nice to sit under. But, my goodness, those vines were a lot of work.

I am going to create a garden for my 5 year old niece this spring. I too want to create a sitting area. I am going to make an arch out of 16Â X 4Â cow fence and a bench out of 2 x 4Âs. Swan gourds, cannon ball gourds, giant bottle gourds, and jack-be-little pumpkins will climb the arch. Hopefully none of the gourds will fall on our heads! We will use the gourds for arts and crafts projects when they are ready.

Gourds will be fun! I had the same concern with growing cucumbers and mini-pumpkins on one of the arches...are they going to fall on my head? (LOL)

I may wait a while on the grapevine. I want to plant a hardy grape (like Valiant) but don't know what they taste like. I wish they had a way to try them before you buy from a nursery :)