Winter Survival for Container Gardens: Home Gardening Tips, Ideas & Advice

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Scott Reil and on behalf of Expert Village, I would like to talk to you about container gardening. My Becky’s partial to the occasional mojito, and I like my mint julep especially up around Kentucky Derby time, so it has been imperative that we keep mint around. But mint is one of those thugs that you do not want to have out in your garden because it will just take over. Plants like this oregano we just potted up, can run sort of the same way. So containerizing these plants is a great way to keep them in a controlled environment where you can keep an eye on them. But then comes the end of the season, you are done with harvest time and what are you to do with them. How are we going to get these guys through winter back in production? Well this is the third year this mint has come through for us and it is coming through in flying colors once again. It is always a little slow to start and it looks like a little bit of magic trick when you pull it off but we’ve managed to get these to come back for me 3 years in a row now and it’s pretty easy. All I do is I take this and move it in my garage. If you’ve got a sun room or a screen porch, it will help keep the cold and the winter winds and the worse of it off of it, that’s really all it is going to take. What do I do to keep it watered? Well during the winter plants don’t need or use as much water when they go into their dormant stage. They do need to keep somewhat moist and there is a really good rule of thumb that I’ve put to work for me. Every time I have to come out here and shovel snow, these guys get a shovel full of snow on top of them. It works out perfectly. Mother Nature knows right when to give these guys a little added moisture and that is a good cue for me to do it too. The snow melts very slowly and evenly in that garage because it is down around 40 degrees and the moisture is nice and even throughout the pot. It doesn’t let it get too wire or damp. So again, keeping containers and keeping your herbs in containers and bringing through year after year is really not a magic trip. It just takes a little common sense in working with Mother Nature. "