Gardening Question of the Week: How Can I Over-Winter My Container Plants?

This question came up several times this fall. Container gardening has been on the increase, but what do you do with all those plants once you close down the patio for the season in cold climates. It’s often impractical to drag them indoors and, even if you did, many plants don’t fare any better in the dry, sun deprived atmosphere of our homes than they do outdoors in freezing temperatures. If you simply can’t bring yourself to compost your container plants and start fresh in the spring, you’re going to have to give them some extra protection. Here are some of the things that have worked for me, when I needed to protect my containers. If you have some suggestions to add, please do. We need all the ideas we can get.

Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2008) licensed to About.com, Inc.