Howdy,

I have some nice purple basil in my front yard. How well will it
over-winter? Should I cover it on freezing nights, or just let it be? I
have a couple volunteers that just came up as well. Should I dig those out
and bring them inside for the winter? Seems like I can never grow enough for
how much we use it, and I want to save everything I can.

Same question for pepper plants. Do they over-winter? Or shall I dig it up
and bring it inside?

Thanks in advance.

-D

Dustin Slater wrote:

Howdy,

I have some nice purple basil in my front yard. How well will it
over-winter? Should I cover it on freezing nights, or just let it be? I
have a couple volunteers that just came up as well. Should I dig those out
and bring them inside for the winter? Seems like I can never grow enough for
how much we use it, and I want to save everything I can.

Same question for pepper plants. Do they over-winter? Or shall I dig it up
and bring it inside?

Thanks in advance.

Purple Basil shuld reseed itself and come up qbundantly in
the spring. It is an annual. I have ever tried toover winter
in the house as I allways have too many plants without
trying them.

Most peppers are annuals, too, but usually .. at least in my
experience.. aren't great about reseeding unless you have
allowed the pods to dry out and self seed. I always just
pulled them up when they were through producing and turing
yellow and dried out.

--
nTX USDA Z 7B
Leona
Non Commercial site http://www.geocities.com/tvksi/index.htm

Neither overwinter, you can dig up the peppers, but they won't do all that
well. I usually just plant new ones next year. If you have a greenhouse that
is different.

The basil really won't grow at all once it is cold out. So I just let them
die when it gets cold. A little covering can keep them around another month
or so but they will grow slowly if cool out. You could just harvest it all
and make pesto or something and preserve it like that. That is what I am
going to do this week.

"Dustin Slater" wrote in message
. ..
Howdy,

I have some nice purple basil in my front yard. How well will it
over-winter? Should I cover it on freezing nights, or just let it be? I
have a couple volunteers that just came up as well. Should I dig those out
and bring them inside for the winter? Seems like I can never grow enough
for
how much we use it, and I want to save everything I can.

Same question for pepper plants. Do they over-winter? Or shall I dig it up
and bring it inside?

Thanks in advance.

-D

Howdy folks,
When you know it's going to get cold enough to kill off your Basil
you can harvest it all and make Basil ice cubes in your freezer. Then
when mid winter pesto mania hits you can just take them out and cook
with them as needed.
One year hear in Austin I got a Basil plant through the entire
winter by using one of those 'water walls' , and this taxes my ability
to communicate, but its a ring of plastic tubes filled with water that
stands as a teepee over the plant. On cold nights I would set a dish
on top and toss a blanket over the entire plant. This turned out to
be way more effort than I would want to repeat, but once I got
involved it was something of an existential battle I found myself
engaged in getting this one plant through the winter.
Of course being an annual it still wanted to finish it's life cycle
so I had to keep cutting off the flowers as they formed.

take care,
Steve Coyle
www.austingardencenter.com