Indoor Gardening 101: How to Overwinter Plants Inside
As temperatures trend cooler, your warm weather plants’ outdoor vacation comes to an end. Below, five things you should do to transition your plants from outside to inside for the winter.
1. Debug them.
Bea Johnson, author of Zero Waste Home, sprays a mix of Castile soap and water on her plants to repel pests. For the soil, since some insects will hibernate in your plants’ soil, you will soak the pots, up to the soil line, in a very mild soap and water solution.
Soak the plants for 15 minutes.
Bring your potted plants indoors about a couple weeks before your first frost date. Moving them indoors will be a bit of a shock, so don’t wait too long.
2. Acclimate them.
Photograph by Mimi Giboin for Gardenista, from How to Garden Like a Frenchwoman: 10 Ideas to Steal from a Paris Balcony.
Photograph by Marie Viljoen, from 14 Things Nobody Tells You About Indoor Citrus Trees.
3. Light them.
Lemon trees are notoriously hard to grow in climates with hard winters. If your plants are used to being in full sun and you bring them inside for the winter, they may show their unhappiness by dropping leaves. Place full sun plants near windows for direct light.
Staghorn ferns prefer humid environments. However, this does not mean you should water the soil more.
Photograph by Katie Newburn for Gardenista, from 7 Favorites: Houseplants for the Bath.
4. Moisturize them.
Photograph by Roe Ann White and Bill Dewey, from Landscape Revival: A Secluded, Historic 1920s Estate in Santa Barbara (Rose Garden Included).
5. Let them hibernate.
Like most plants, succulents don’t need fertilizer in the fall or winter.