Overwintering Hot Pepper Plants. 10.27.22

 Hor pepper plants can be overwintered.  Last year, I overwintered a Jalmundo (jumbo Jalapeño) plant.  To  do that, dig up the plant.  This one is a Cayenne pepper that has been harvested.

Now hose off all of the soil.  That removes insects and other harmful creatures.

Now prune the roots and top to a more compact shape.  The top pruning can be pretty radical.  I pruned to about 1/2" above nice looking nodes.  Each node can produce several branches when it starts growing again.

Now plant the pruned hot pepper plant in a clean container with good quality potting soil.   Water it in.  Let it drain.  Now store in bright,  cool, frost-free room.

Here it is with two friends, a Jalapeño and a Banana pepper plant.  Also a dendrobium orchid.

These will be allowed to dry out, with only slight moistening until late winter.  Now they are in the garage.  I will move them to a cool room, before it's too cold.

Another Frog. 10.27.22

These little frogs are all over the place.  Frogs eat insects.  So I'm happy they are here.

Cosmos. 10.20.22

 The cosmos finally bloomed.  It's nice having such perky flowers, this time of year.

Planting Garlic. 10.20.22

 Each year, I set aside enough if the garlic harvest to plant the crop for the following year.  Each bulb usually has six to ten cloves, which makes a row in my garden.  This year, I planted four rows of Music garlic (hardneck) and four rows of Lorz (softneck)  garlic.  Supposedly, softneck will keep longer although last year the hardneck Music kept nearly a year.

Music.  These have huge cloves.

Lorz.  Cloves are nice size but not gigantic, and there are more of them.

This is how deep I plant them, about 3 or 4 inches deep.

All planted.

Wildfire Warnings. 10.17.22

 I'm temporarily away from the homestead due to wildfire warnings.  We are a few miles from the evacuation zones, but it is smoky.  I'm a couple of miles northeast of Battle Ground, which is in the Northeast corner of the map.  The map is from the county website.

I always keep a Go-Bag although the contents are a bit old now.  Last night I spent an hour chasing one of the hens, who didn't want to go back to the hen house.

Over the years, we removed flammable shrubs and trees from areas adjacent to the house.  The mulch next to the house is lava rock gravel.  The big propane tank is gone.  The neighbors' towering Leyland cypress are the main risk.   Right now it's wait and see.