Winterizing The Back Porch Garden page

[Dr. Bork Bork]

Hey Primal friends. Winter is coming our way and I confess I have no idea how to winterize my little garden. I have a strawberry plant, raspberry, blackberry, golden berry, tomato, purple bell pepper, zucchini, and yellow squash plant that I'm clueless about caring for. I've given them good soil all summer and the bell pepper, strawberry, and tomato plants have bore me nom noms well.
Now what?
Do I repot in fresh soil and bring them inside? Do I leave them on the porch where the snow can't get on them?
HELP!

[Kaylee99]

You could try covering them with plastic to help hold in heat. I kinda lean toward bringing them in the house though, since I'm pretty sure it freezes a lot where you are. The berries should overwinter fine on their own (mulch them good) but I can't see the tomato, peppers, or squash being happy in the cold.

And how do you still have plants? Mine have already given up the ghost and turned yellow and dead. I'm going to till the garden next weekend and plant a cover crop. I just started up the Aerogarden and planted a bunch of herbs, otherwise its whatever the farmer's market has available (and how often I succumb to supermarket stuff) from now till next May. *sigh*

[Dr. Bork Bork]

Yeah, they're starting to do the yellow leaf thing. Maybe it's the super amazing soil I gave them that's helping them hang on?
The only thing I can think of for the tomato plant is to cover it in plastic. It's way too big to move. I swear it's baby Audrey II! Not bad for planting at Easter.
I'm tempted to bring the others in, but I don't know where they'd go. We don't have a lot of room as it is.

[Saoirse]

you could try digging up some of the plants, but most of those don't like to be moved and will probably die inside anyway. the snow isn't usually as much of a problem as the outside temperatures; depending on the hardiness of the plant, snow can actually be insulative. standard gardening practice is to dig up annuals and toss them into the compost. the same goes for the perennials which act as annuals in your climate (like the peppers and tomatoes). consider covering the strawberry plants with straw. as far as the other berries go, i think fall is the time to prune but i know nothing about how far to prune them. i need to find out, as this is our first year with raspberries. i also have some grape vines which i bought on sale and need to go in the ground.