Here is a picture of the vineyard and you may be able to see some of the vinelettes sticking their leaves over the top of the spray guards.
The spray guards are to protect the young plants from the effects of any weed spray, and also to stop the plants from being pulled from the ground by birds.
We have lots of Pukeko birds here, they are the same as birds found in Southern Europe called Purple Gallinules, and they will pull out new plantings if they are not guarded.
We needed to get the trees trimmed along the side of the vines, to let more sun onto the vines on that side, and so hired a local hedge trimmer. This is not a man with a hand-held Black & Decker, but a massive machine which cut about 1 metre off the face of the whole row in under an hour.
