Tomatoes and peppers are two of summer’s most-loved foods. However, winter
is quickly drawing near, and the garden is dying out, so at this point you
might assume that you'll would have to stop eating these fresh treats, or
resort to buying them from a local store, but relax, I have a better
solution for you. You don’t have to give up your own fresh
vegetables for the winter, all you need to do is set up a small area in
your garage, shop or barn and you’ll be able to keep on enjoying these
summertime favorites throughout the winter. The cost is small, the work is
light, and the freshness of the foods is well worth the effort.
A little ingenuity and a few easy-to-obtain supplies are all that you need
in order to grow fresh tomatoes and peppers throughout the year. Everyone
knows you can grow flowers year-round – it’s not any less feasible to grow
quality produce in the winter months as well. The first decision that you
need to make when choosing to grow tomatoes and peppers in the winter is
how large of an area can you set aside for this purpose. It’s not a
requirement for the building to be heated, so your barn, shop, or garage
will work for your winter gardening project. Pick a spot that is easy for
you to get to, while making sure that there is electricity available. Then
start planning what kind of tomatoes and peppers you want to grow inside
when the frost, ice and snow are outside.
The smaller plant varieties of tomatoes
are the easiest to grow this way, types like Tiny Tim, Pixie, Small Fry,
and Patio work excellent for this particular project. Peppers that work
the best are also your smaller varieties, such as cherry and banana
peppers. However, with a little more care, the
bell pepper also grows well. It is wise to keep some simple
growing aids on hand such as Miracle Grow in case the plants need a
shot or two to keep them strong. Miracle Grow is optional depending
on if you chose an organic-only approach, if you want your tomatoes and
peppers to be organic then the general basics required to grow them in the
winter are just the standard plant care requirements: light, space, warmth
and attention.
At our place we have chosen to grow our winter tomatoes and peppers in the
garage. We also have a barn as another option, but there the plants would
not only be a little more exposed to the weather, but also to the
chickens and other foul that live on our farm. Our past experience has
proven that there is nothing that will decimate tomatoes faster than a
chicken with an appetite. They can, and will, kill anything by scratching,
pecking and eating at it, until there is nothing left at all for the
humans to have! As we were unwilling to take this chance with our tomatoes
and peppers this year, we chose the garage as our winter gardening area.
To get started with your winter project you will need to decide if you
want your plants to be grown in pots, a trench row, or in some cases, you
might even have an earthen floor to in
which to grow. If you choose trench rows you will need boards or some other type of
material to build a retaining wall to
contain the soil and therefore should consider this when figuring the
costs. In our case we chose pots, or in all actuality buckets – a feasible
option for many of you who don't have spare buckets lying around and don’t
want to go to the trouble of buying pots!
A lot will also depend on
whether you grow the plants from seed or start with live plants. We dug up
our summer tomato and pepper plants and transplanted them into our extra
feed buckets.
Next, we moved them
into the garage where electricity is easily available. Please note
that if you transplant plants from your
summer garden into containers it is best
to loosen the outside soil from around the roots of the plants before
potting them. If you do not do this, the dirt might become too
compacted within the pot and cause the plants to weaken or die. If
you are transplanting them, keep in mind that the plants may wither a
little and possibly loose a few leaves. This is normal because they
will be a little shocked from the transplant experience. They should
recover without any problems, however.
