It is amazing how different vineyards look today compared to 30 years ago. Then, there was not one single straw of grass in the rows between the vines. Today vineyards are often vibrant and colourful with different plants and flowers to keep the vines company. But they also compete with the vines for water and nutrition, which can be good but also bad.
If you decide to stop using herbicides (chemically removing weed), then you can let the weeds grow freely and plough it down into the soil a couple of times a year. But it is becoming more and more common to sow a carefully selected crop or plant – a cover crop – in order to gain more control. It may be a plant that does not require so much water, or it could be e g clover, a plant that does not grow so high and that brings nitrogen to the vines when cut. Different companies are now doing research to find the best types of cover crops for vineyards.
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