thanks for the great ideas! unfortunately i did not take this picture soon enough--but if you look closely you can still sort of see the fence in the background. it's set just a couple of inches (at most) out from the block well. i have been tying the grapevines to it with string every few weeks.
i used the diamond shearing method posted earlier in the thread
. i hope i can find more sticks. the last time i went to get some from a pile that had been cleared i got stopped by the police. i told him what i was doing and he let me go after running my id but it still shook me up a bit. (to be fair--he said they watch the area where i was because of people stealing metal from the construction sites.)