The grape trellis analogy

Robert LarsonContributor - October 12, 2022

I was thinking about Redneck’s muscadine harvest and tried to think how it relates to being prepared.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but grapes, muscadines, beans, and other climbing plants won’t do very well if you plant them in a flat bed with nothing to climb on. They need something called a trellis. This could be something orderly and fancy like this picture, or even a chain link fence.

Because this sturdy scaffolding provides stability and direction for the plants to climb, they can grow healthy and strong and produce lovely produce for us.

This picture is from Redneck’s post, linked above. It’s a great example to me of a bountiful harvest.

We are the grape plant, and if we try and just go off and prepare on our own, we won’t grow very well. We need a good trellis, a good piece of scaffolding to give us direction, and something to lean on. I have tried prepping on my own and I often make mistakes, waste money on bogus products, and try to climb onto things I shouldn’t. The Prepared has been that trellis for me. It has been a source of stability, rational thinking, and good product reviews and the results have been a healthy strong plant/prep and delicious fruit/being prepared. And because I now have delicious fruit, I can share that with others who then will plant the seeds from that fruit and start their own prepping plant/journey.

Thank you to all the wonderful staff here at The Prepared who have been master gardeners. You have built a strong trellis for me to climb on, and through the forum have shaped, pruned, and watered me to grow my best.

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I like your analogy and really like how that the student is becoming a teacher.

And yes, my muscadines grow as well on an existing fence as they do on the fancy trellis system in the orchard.  They just need a place to stretch out.  They ain’t particular.