I Need a Greenhouse!

So I had my hot peppers on my enclosed front porch and I bought a thermostat to monitor how cold it got out there. It has dipped below 50˚F and the peppers are really showing that they are unhappy with this weather with droopy leaves and lots of leaf dropping and winter hasn't even hit yet! So I moved them into the actual house into my dining room as much as I was trying to keep plants out of there. I still have two Clivias and a Mandevallia out there. They seem to be holding up ok. I will probably move the clivias up to my third floor and find some space somewhere for the Mandevilla. Winter is so hard to do in this house. There are hardly any windows and if there are any, the window sills are so tiny! I keep trying to downsize, but I amit, I'm an addict :)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention....I was at Lowes a few days ago and they had the new and improved Meyer's Lemon on sale for....$3! What's so new and improved about this one? It is self pollinated! Unlike the one I have already, which needs a pollinator for me to get any lemons! I couldn't pass it up. $3!

Last Minute

The nights have been dipping into the 20s lately. I finally brought my Cymbidiums in the other night. Today I finally had the time to go get mulch, only to find out it was slim pickings! :( I got a bag of cedar mulch instead. On my way out, I noticed they had cow manure! Never seen it sold before and it was cheap enough! So I picked up a bag of that too to dump over my garlic bed. I just put it right on top of my clippings in hopes that it will decompose faster this way! The mulch I put over my buried carnivorous plants. Still need to put more down, but I was running out of sunlight to see so it will have to be done tomorrow instead!

I also picked up another Amaryllis. I just couldn't help it! :D

Thanksgiving Cactus & Meyer Lemon Blooms

Meyer's Lemon

These are actually red, but the camera doesn't show it that well.

Window of Rain

Woke up this morning and thought the weather reporters were wrong as it was sunny and dry! I hurried up and got outside to bury all my carnivorous plants so they could overwinter. Good thing I did as I got closer to finishing the rain started falling! Tried to get some mulch at Lowes, but the one I chose was sorely lacking in materials! Sometime before the hard frost hits I will have to get some mulch! Hopefully I will remember where I buried them next year! Just to document it...I planted one in the garlic bed, one in the place of the bell pepper and four in between the two houses!

A bit late....and on time.

I've been quite busy so I haven't had much time for gardening this year, much to my dismay. The sun set at 5pm today and by the time I got home, it was dark already. I had cut my dahalia a week or two ago and I needed to dig it up before winter set in hard. So begrudgingly I went out in the dark since it was going to rain tomorrow. The clump was smaller than last year, but I probably severed it from a larger root system and only got two small bits. It's probably enough though. This way, I don't feel obligated to save and plant all of it. If the rest of it dies underground I will just consider it compost!

While digging my dahlia out I saw little green nubbins. My garlic had already grown! I hope it has a nice nap this winter and grow some big bulbs for me!

I still have yet to figure out how to overwinter my pitcher plants and the like. I think I will bury some outside. My plans of keeping them inside over the winter were shot as the perfect room to keep them in will be occupied soon for a few weeks. I can't exactly ask guests to sleep in 44˚F weather :) My coal cellar isn't cold enough yet and neither is my front porch, but hopefully my front porch won't get too chilly as my hot peppers are overwintering there since I am out of space, especially out of light!

Overwintering Peppers

This year I'm trying something different...since my hot peppers take so long to mature I am bringing them indoors to overwinter. Not sure how well that will work, but it's worth a try!