Love Me Tender

Baby, it's cold outside today! Just look - I can see my breath. Did I mention it's cold outside?

Love Me Tender

No matter how many years we live here, how much we talk about it, or how much we plan for it, when really cold days arrive, we Southerners are always caught by surprise. Like, “What happened?!?” We never fail to exclaim, “Oh, it’s so cold!” Profound, huh? Then we repeat it throughout the day and into the night. And of course, we must do the breath test and compare ours with others. My oh my.

Here in East Texas, we can have Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter all in the same week—and not necessarily in the appropriate season. You simply learn to love it and live with it… or leave.

For reasons I can’t fully explain, I find great solace in the long-angled shadows and dwindling, off-centered rays reaching from a sun that seems a little too tipsy to stay the course. Glistening through boughs and leaves, it beckons, “Come play with me and be my love,” then sucker-punches you like a fickle lover with a “Ha! Just kidding,” the moment you venture out for its embrace.

Still, I adore every moment of this wondrous time, along with every other season and every turn of nature cycling and circling—folding up and putting away, resting and regrouping, only to resurrect in warmth what we once considered cold, dead, and vanquished. There is so much to learn about the nature of life when we observe the life of nature. It’s wondrous.

Trying Something New

Every year, I try at least one new thing in different areas of my life. In the garden this year, I decided to try something I read about in a blog last winter: overwintering pepper plants by bringing them indoors.

I love my pepper plants—the habanero, the Thai, the good old reliable jalapeño, the new Pathfinder, the cayenne. I love them all. I don’t eat hot peppers, but I find them beautiful. I use them a bit in cooking, in herbal remedies, and I appreciate their uncanny ability to convince certain pests to relocate.

What I don’t love is starting over every year. In warmer regions, peppers are perennials, but here in East Texas, Zone 8, they can’t survive winter’s cooler temperatures. Supposedly, you can lift them from the garden, bring them inside, and allow them to survive—and even grow larger—the following year. I’m putting that theory to the test.

How I’m Overwintering My Pepper Plants

The general method looks like this:

• Remove pepper plants from the ground

• Spray and clean the roots to remove bugs

• Trim the roots

• Soak the plant in a mixture of neem oil and dish soap

• Place the plant in an appropriately sized pot

• Fill with fresh potting soil

• Trim leaves and branches back to three or four main forked branches

• Move to a sheltered area that stays above freezing

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These plants require very little water and no fertilizer. The goal is dormancy—resting through winter and ready to replant come spring.

The blog mentioned that with proper grow lights and conditions, peppers can continue producing through winter. I’m not attempting that this year—perhaps in the future.

I’ll admit, I didn’t spray the roots or repot with fresh soil. Since these plants aren’t coming into the main part of the house, I felt comfortable skipping that step. So far, so good—but it’s only day two. I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, other things are loving these cooler temps.

Now bundle up and get outside. Enjoy those long, sideways drifts of sunshine, breathe in the crisp air, and reflect on how grand life truly is Between the Wildflowers & the Weeds.