What do I do with a grapevine that someone has given me?!

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

MIL, bless her, has given me a "grape plant" as part of my birthday present. She's a non-gardener, doesn't have her own garden, and probably hasn't considered what I am able to do with it.

I don't really have anywhere to put it. We do face south so lots of sun but the back of the house is all bifold doors so there isn't really anywhere I can grow it up.

Can you grow them in pots?! It's the Venus variety.

What about up a trellis on a fence down the side? If your garden is south-facing, then one fence must face west. That would do.

I have one in a very large pot growing over the back of my house (south east facing). It doesn't do as well as if it was in the ground but I got a decent crop of grapes from it last year.

The fences are low, @MustardRose. Not even chest height. The west facing fence has shrubs, roses, some clematis in front.

My understanding was that grape vines need a large space to grow up and across, but perhaps that’s wrong.

@squashyhat, the pot idea is intriguing. When you say it’s growing up the back of the house, what do you mean exactly? How much space does it take up?

How about an arch or a pergola?

My understanding was that grape vines need a large space to grow up and across, but perhaps that’s wrong. Commercial grapes are increasingly being grown on low wires, for easier picking. You should be able to grow it on a fence. But the shoots can grow 6-12 feet in a season (you cut them back to close to the main branch each winter, so they're not going to spread forever). Mine grows on a 6ft fence among the branches of a fig tree. I don't give it any attention apart from a winter prune, so I don't get enough grapes to make wine, or big eating grapes but I get lots of small grapes which we scatter on breakfast cereals to get little bursts of taste and sweetness, quite late in the year after the sort fruit has finished.

I have two vines trained up and across a brick arbour. The effort was well worth it.