preparations

Today is overcast, so I stuck the baby snug in her stroller

and we went outside into the garden to dig up some plants and (hopefully) keep them alive partway or, in the case of the peppers, all through the winter.

As I understand, peppers can be perennial plants, they just don't like the cold. Nights are getting a bit chill now. So I've dug up my best Bell Pepper, the little Jalapeno (which still has tons of little fat peppers hanging on it) and the one that makes peppers with a pointy end (I'm still not sure what they're called) to bring indoors. I tried this last year, but my plant got an aphid infestation and I didn't know how to treat it and it died. Sad. This time I've made sure to prune off extra-heavy foliage, withered and bug-bitten leaves, and those with insect eggs on them. Also careful to knock most of the soil off the roots and pot them in potting soil with perlite mixed in. Treated the three Basil I potted up the same way.

You can see them all here. The Bell is the biggest pepper, the other two are smaller. Basils in the front

or in this photo, off to the side. I'm trying to make a good spot for them all near the kitchen window where they'll get good light in the winter but not be cold (mudroom has the best light but no heat).

Now I have a priority system for eating Basil. First we'll eat leaves off the few plants left outside, until they die. Then we'll eat off the potted plants I'm bringing indoors, until they fail. Last of all we'll use the dried leaves from the ones I've cut and hung from the beams (one of which got put into a jar already, but more on that later).