We've got a lot of questions lately about both what the word overwintering

means but also how to overwinter especially if you are in a colder climate.

So this question came again from Instagram from Krista Rep

and she just wants to know how do I actually overwinter

my containers in colder climates.

As many of you know, I do not live in a colder climate I'm up here in

zone 10 B, San Diego, California so my overwintering process typically involves

just moving that container out of the production garden and maybe into the

side yard or behind a shed or something. In fact just yesterday I did this with a

pepper plant that I've already overwintered once. I trimmed it down to about one third and I've placed it behind my shed for now.

So it's not going to have as much access to sun. It's just going to go into a bit of a dormant state and we'll see if it comes back again this following spring. I'm actually really

excited about that because the leaves started to look a little chlorotic and I'm worried that maybe

there's something going on in the root structure of the plant.

So we'll see if it comes back.

But let's talk now about how to actually overwinter if you're in a colder climate.

So in a colder climate, obviously you have to deal with freezing temperatures and

that's not actually the only thing you have to deal with. There's typically a

decent amount of wind which can damage the plant as well. So if you're in zone, let's say four or even colder, you have

the most work to do when it comes to overwintering. So you need to move it to a sheltered location location both from cold and from wind. So let's say you had

a balcony railing planter or some balcony containers sitting on top of a railing

that's blasted by the wind quite a bit in the fall winter, right?

So at the very least you should be moving it off of that railing, but close to a building

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