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Anyone doing a garden?

RickeyM said:
If you're not a winter gardener now's the time to plan what you're gonna do next year and review what this year's mistakes have taught us. Oh yeah, welcome back to the AK Retirees club :)

I know it's too late to start onions this year I think but I just might try some next year.
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They just didn't get big at all, but I read that wintering over is a good method so I'm experimenting.
 
I'm not a Winter gardener and with temps forecast for freezing by sunup it looks like outside, this year's a wrap. I'm going to try overwintering a Bell pepper again and put the hot pepper plants in water inside. Harvest the remaining tomatoes & peppers. Cut off all the bad leaves from the tomato plants and the rest goes in the compost.
 
After two nights of a hard frost, I finally cut the rest of my kale, which is the end of this year's garden. For anyone who grows kale and doesn't know yet: kale's flavour improves if you leave it out until the first hard frost of the year. Kale is cold hardy and is usually safe down to -10C/14F, so there's no risk of it wilting. But it's usually best to bring it in after the first hard frost or two.
 
Well the deed is done. The Bell pepper is pruned back, brought indoors and put in a pot. I'll put it in the back section of the basement where it's cooler and rig up a plant light for it. The hot peppers are in a bucket of water with an airstone bubbling away until I can get them squared away properly. See ya' next year.
 
Here in the South our winter garden is doing well with Cabbage and Turnip Greens and Collards and other winter plants and I will try and post pictures tomorrow. Got the greenhouse ready for the winter also, going to try some Tomato plants this winter just to see if we can do it.
 
I pulled my bell pepper plant and pruned back the leaves to overwinter it inside. I pulled the cayenne and chilli pepper plants, washed off their roots and plunked them into bucket of water with an air stone and a couple spoons of nutrients. That bucket is a temporary deal while I set up a proper DWC set but those peppers have really began to grow. The chilli pepper in particular in a weeks time is showing many nice red peppers. Go figure.
 
Our little tomatoe plants seem to like the greenhouse so far if they make it they will be the most expensive plants that we have done. 20231209_171554.jpg20231209_171606.jpg
 
I put my raised vegetable bed to sleep for the winter. I buried some uncompleted compost in there and covered the soil with a couple of inches of shredded leaves. I covered that with some shade cloth so air and water can get in but keep junk out. Early next spring I'll be putting in a big dose of worm castings. I'll be Winter sowing some wildflower seeds in one of the raised flower beds and the other one will be converted to veggie growing.
 
Two issues. I finally got the results of the soil samples I sent to the Ag center, and found out what happened, especially to my 4x12 raised bed. Imagine beets that don’t grow….how about carrots that are 2-3” long, after 6+ months? Geeeeeeeze
I picked up in early spring a couple garbage cans of Alpaca crap, some composted, probably half still somewhat fresh. Tilled in with a small electric tiller, and after a month or so started planting….Some things did fine, tomatoes, melons, onions, while some things just sat. A zucchini plant after 2 months only 2” high? WTH
the results are in. The P levels of Phosphorus should read between 50-70. One bed read 270, and what was planted did ok in general, but the big bed, the 4 x 12, tested at 690…..off the charts!
Because I can’t determine whether the slow composting will get down to a decent level, I finished digging out the top 6+” of the bed and moving it out to a stock pile I don’t plan on using, and refilling the bed with multiple bags of Raised Bed Mix(Daddy Pete’s is my fav), bagged compost, bagged mushroom compost, bagged COMPOSTED manure, and carefully mixed the layers together. I tarped the garden bed to wait for spring, and look forward to kickin butt next year with all I like to plant!
Ergo, be more than careful with any fresh style large animal manure……just sayin! My garlic bed, which was of the lower P level results, which I also dug out and refilled is shown in the garlic thread, and is doing super. The high levels of P did cause a size discrepancy that bugged me!

To all who overwinter pepper plants? I will experiment a bit with this,but my question is other than cutting the plants back, is it necessary to uproot them, trim some roots, and repot in fresh potting soil, or will a simple cutback work some or most of the time? I have never heard of this saving pepper plants over winter until this year of YouTube videos!
 
Sending soil samples to be examined is something I've not done but I guess I should. I guess with the overwintering peppers it depends if you're bringing them inside. You don't want to chance bringing any bugs indoors. You want to overwinter the peppers not any pests that may hitch hike along. On that note, a pineapple plant I had outside to get as much sunlight as possible was brought inside with (knock on wood) no signs of any critters coming around with it.
 
I could put a few pepper plants cut back in the fabric pots in the garden shed? In NC our winters are pretty mild. As a last resort I could put a couple in the attached garage.
Is the repotting more for removing pests or for nutrients? I would think you don't want to increase nutrients while trying to keep them dormant?
 
No food, but my Palm garden has done well so far this winter. We've had a few freezing nights, but no prolonged deep freezes. Of course the banana plants were cut down and mulched last month, but the 4 Bulgarian (cold hardy) Palms still look good, as does the 3 yo Windmill Palm. I've got a pile of leaves on the patio, so once I mulch them, I'll spread them over the cedar mulch already at the base of these plants.
The Elephant Ear forest in the middle of the yard wilted and has been chopped short and mulched.

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They may be slow growers but I hope to be around as they grow tall.
 

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CT Jim said:
I could put a few pepper plants cut back in the fabric pots in the garden shed? In NC our winters are pretty mild. As a last resort I could put a couple in the attached garage.
Is the repotting more for removing pests or for nutrients? I would think you don't want to increase nutrients while trying to keep them dormant?
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Never overwintered but I would think it would be best not to disturb the roots before doing it but I could be wrong. Check out some of the pepper sites to see what they recommend.

I just ordered three new pepper seeds for next year. Well...the Trident I did grow last year but that was from live plants from a nursery...so I'll have seeds this year. Going to try these Spitfire Anaheim's and if they in fact grow larger than the Chargers did they should be nice peppers. The Leyla peppers look intriguing for snacking and smoked paprika. So I'm set for seeds since I still have most of the ones I planted last year also.

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What I learned this year trying to grow peppers. Do not plant them in the same space as lettuce or kale. Also I do not need three different types of hot peppers. Thirdly, wear gloves when processing hot peppers and do not under any circumstances touch your face near your eyes :p
 
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