I Successfully Overwintered Our Porch Plants

I hope I don’t jinx it by saying I successfully overwintered our front porch plants which included the ferns and the Spike plants.

But I did!

For those of you who enjoy gardening and consider it one of your life passions this will seem like not a big deal.

To me, it was a big deal to keep my summer plants alive all winter long because I’d never tried to save my front porch plants.

Frankly, I’m usually sick and tired of watering them by the time August rolls around and they die a sad death. Then I feel guilty that my neglect caused this catastrophe.

But not last summer!

Last summer, I somehow managed to maintain my watering stamina all throughout August and into September.

It was as if the better angels of my black thumb had taken over.

Soon, it was the end of September and my front porch plants were still alive. Here’s proof of them coexisting with the mums.

It goes without saying that I now had a VERY large emotional investment in my $5 grocery store ferns and the rest of my front porch potted plants, so I didn’t want them to die.

I did what any logical person would do in this scenario.

I asked my husband to help me build a hanging rod for the ferns in our sunporch. We spent more than the initial cost for the ferns to buy a rod strong enough to hold them.

Seems pretty on par for any DIY project.

I have zero regrets about building that hanging bar for plants though because it gave a purpose (save the plants!) to this otherwise unused corner of our sunporch.

Speaking of saving the plants, everything went fine for a while. Months, really.

That purpose became a bit wobbly when I proceeded to kill the jalapeno, mini roses, and sage. Bugs got to them before I realized that we needed to spray them with Neem oil.

Never fear though, the rosemary, amaryllis, Spike, Calibrachoa, and ferns survived.

I’m not sure if that has as much to do with me, the environment, or the fact that those particular plants just might be designed to survive a lot of adversity.

In fact, I didn’t follow any of the online suggestions about trimming the ferns before bringing them inside. What I did do was move them into larger containers because they had grown so much over the summer.

In terms of watering all of these plants, I watered them once a week as I do the houseplants. It seemed to be enough. I mean, they are still alive, aren’t they?

In fact, the Spike plants are huge now and the Calibrachoa are blooming.

I will say, the ferns in particular are messy houseplants. If you decide to overwinter ferns, choose your indoor location carefully. They drop little fronds anytime you look in their direction. How rude.

I speak with no authority on the matter of overwintering plants. Heck, I had to Google if the correct term was “wintering” or “overwintering.”

I’m only here to offer encouragement.

If I can keep half of my plants alive over the winter, surely you can too!

What’s the worst that can happen? The plants die inside your house instead of on your front porch? At least your neighbors won’t be able to judge you.

Now is the perfect time to start psyching yourself up for this challenge.

You’re probably getting ready to deck your front porch out with some gorgeous flowers for spring and summer. If you can keep those plants alive throughout the summer, you have a chance at overwintering them!

Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Fun might be the wrong word. I’ve lived through two (or is it twenty?) years of a pandemic now. My concept of fun has become skewed. Ha!

Happy gardening, my friends.

Thanks for being here today. If you have a plant tale to share, I’d love to hear it. If you have some plant advice, I may or may not take it. If you’d just like to say hi, I’ll say hi back! You can always email me here. You can also reach out via Instagram or Facebook.

As a special prize for reaching the end of this blog post, here are some other posts you might enjoy. 

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