Well...that proves the saying about 'assuming'.

One of the things that we were really excited about when we moved into our house last spring were the grapes growing along the fence.  At least we thought they were grapes...I certainly pruned them and treated them like grapes all year....and it was a pretty safe assumption.  Richland is in the middle of Columbia Valley Wine Country...everyone has grapes in their back yard, so, figuring the vines growing along our fence were grapes was not a huge leap.

As they got leafy and the season moved along, they formed little balls of flowers that I figured would turn into grapes, but instead they formed much looser groups of strangely berry looking 'grapes'.

Finally, I broke down and posted a picture of my 'grapes' on a few local sites...and found out that what I though were grapes, were actually an invasive vine called Virginia Creeper.

An invasive vine that is toxic to most mammals, and is actually in the poison ivy family...which surprises me, because my daughters spent most of the summer building a fort out of some of it.

Anyway...so, yeah.  No grapes...but the good news, is that the chickens don't have any problems with the plant.  They LOVE the little berries, and if I toss a 4 foot piece of the vine into their run, the will strip it clean of berries and leaves overnight. 

Once the leaves fall off for the fall, I suspect I will start the battle of trying to rip out this 'invasive vine'.  I was willing to have my chain link fence stressed by the weight of grapes...but not a vine that does ME no good.