For as our autumns have grown warmer so vines have stretched their tendrils all over the land. New varieties of table grapes that ripen more readily than the traditional hothouse varieties mean that those who long to pick a bunch of grapes from their garden can do so.

Our 333 commercial vineyards can be found as far north as Leeds and every garden centre has pots of vines for sale. Yet there is still an aura of mystery surrounding grapevines and perhaps it has to do with our perception that they are tender plants requiring heat and more coddling than any of us are likely to provide.

Think of dessert grapes and it is impossible not to think of Victorian glasshouses with elaborate heating systems and head gardeners who would have picked the grapes for the house, storing them in rows of water jars, each supporting a single bunch of grapes attached to a length of stem. Lady Downe's Seedling would have been one such, a Vinous type with large purple berries.

Hothouse grapes fall into four categories - Sweetwater, Muscat, Seedless and Vinous - and all are very much more likely to produce ripe crops under glass, although only Vinous require constant heat. The old variety Black Hamburgh, which famously thrives under glass in Hampton Court, is a Sweetwater type that can produce ripe bunches on a warm wall.

Yet the vines themselves are not the tender creatures that we think they are. Even Vinous vines prefer to keep their roots out of the greenhouse and many gardeners grow the vine on the outside and introduce the fruiting stems through a hole in the lower wall.

There are many more vines that will both grow and ripen their fruits happily outside. All grape vines can stand temperatures down to -20°C and will romp away over walls and pergolas, arches and trellises. They can, of course, be trained in rows along the classic French Guyot system (see "A vineyard of your own").

If you want to try your hand at growing vines then you only need consider whether you want dessert-quality grapes, grapes to make wine or, easiest of all, a vine as a strictly ornamental feature. If you choose with care you can even pick a variety with tasty berries that makes pretty good wine and flares up in a flame of scarlet leaves every autumn.

I suspect that if you have always hankered after an ornamental vine, then at least one of your walls will be clothed with Coignetiae, a very vigorous and handsome vine from Japan whose black grapes are displayed against vivid scarlet leaves in the autumn. If you want to produce dessert-quality grapes then consider the following.

Table grapes do need a period of warm weather to ripen so the key is to choose your varieties with care and, if you live in the colder midlands or north, plant your vines against a sheltered, south-facing wall. A quartet of new varieties will give you dessert-quality grapes. Phoenix produces large golden berries with a fine muscat aroma ripening in early October whilst Theresa's berries have the softest pink tinge to their green skins and ripen in late September.

Two varieties with bunches of black grapes, Regent and Queen of Esther, bear large berries in September with leaves that turn bright scarlet before they fall. Most importantly for amateur and professional viticulturists alike, they are mildew and fungus resistant - for vines are prone to both.

One of the best of the old varieties is simply called Strawberry grape or Fragole and its pink-red grapes really do taste like the fruit that they are named after. The Strawberry grape is a good candidate for a pergola.

A vine, given its head, will cover a wall or a pergola in three years and live happily for 100 years or more. The wider and more uncontrolled it spreads itself the lower the quality of fruit, so it is obvious that anyone contemplating a vine should be ready with a sharp pair of secateurs. There is a great deal of mystery concerning pruning of vines, but in the end it really comes down to what you require.

No matter whether you are growing your vines for wine, for the table or for ornamental purposes, the first three years will be the same. This is a time for the vine to establish itself, sending its roots deep into well-drained soil if it is lucky, although it will thrive in any soil that isn't waterlogged. Sandy or chalk soils are fine too, as long as the vine is well watered whilst it is growing its long roots.

While the vine is establishing itself you should concentrate on producing a sturdy plant, discouraging weak lateral shoots in favour of a good, main trunk. The easiest way of doing this is to rub out all the buds below the point where you want your vine to divide into two lateral branches.

How high the trunk should reach is purely a matter of choice. Manuals will tell you to cut it back once it is truly dormant in the first winter to a height of 60cm (2 ft) but there is no hard and fast rule. The only fact to be aware of is that the old brown wood should only be pruned in winter when the vine is dormant: prune this wood in the spring and you risk your vine literally bleeding to death. Young, green shoots on the other hand can be pruned at any time.

In the third year you can make a framework of lateral wires, spaced 30cm (1ft) apart, on to which you can train your vine. Vine eyes are handy metal wedges that can be hammered into mortar and through which plastic-coated wire can be threaded. As soon as the wires are up you will gain a much better visual picture of how your grapevine will spread. You will see that the ideal is to have two lateral branches from the trunk you can then run along the bottom wire to give you a T-shape. These two permanent leaders will then produce spurs all along their length that can be tied vertically to the wires.

You don't have to stick to walls and pergolas however; if you have a warm, sheltered spot in your border, why not grow your vine around an obelisk or a wigwam? The National Trust property Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk does just this with 183cm (6ft) high timber wigwams clothed in grapevines amongst beds of shrub roses. Once the vine has reached the top of the wigwam the laterals are allowed to develop.

In January laterals are cut back to two buds, leaving short spurs all along the trunk and then in July when these have grown they should be stopped at two leaves beyond the second bunch of grapes. Choose the Dornfelder variety and you will not only be able to eat the berries but make a fine white wine, and in autumn it will display pure crimson leaves. What more could anyone ask?