Dormant

It's that time of year again. The temperatures become colder and winter begins to roll in. The wondrous trees, bushes, and other plants have been stripped of their leaves. Everything's bare. Everything's silent. Everything's cold. Blankets of white will soon cover the now sleeping plants. All signs of life seem to be gone as the world moves us through this phase once again. Everything's bare. Everything's silent. Everything's cold.

Lately it's been very stormy. We've had quite a bit of rain and even some snow. As the cloudy days consume us, my pepper plants seem to have finally figured out it's autumn/winter. At first I was a little concerned about their condition because all of the healthy looking green leaves were falling off. They were falling off very quickly and easily. One light touch of a leaf could cause it to tumble down onto the soil. My first thought was that they were starting to die, but it didn't make sense considering the entirety of the plants were still a healthy looking green color. Because of this, I once again found myself questioning my tiny forest. What was happening to my plants?

It should have been a very obvious answer considering I watch the same thing happen to trees every year, but for some reason the thought never crossed my mind. Like always, I took my question to Google and searched for my answer. Upon some reading, I discovered that my plants were simply becoming dormant for the season (Rhoades). They weren't dying, they were only going to sleep.

Almost dormant habanero plant.

When reading this article, I couldn't help but pick up the irony in it. It's very common for people to bring their pepper plants indoors for the winter because they are able to survive and be replanted the following season (Rhoades). However, this wasn't the reason my dad and I brought them inside. We thought maybe we could get more produce out of them throughout the entire year. We had no idea that you could actually do this let alone that it's a common gardening tip. With this new information, I wondered more about this "overwintering" process that many gardeners take part in.

How do you overwinter? How do you care for the plants so they don't die in their sleep? There's a few simple things you can do for your plants to help, but mostly you have to allow them to fall into their slumber by themselves. The tips I found include: moving it somewhere that's warm and has sunlight, watering it regularly, and fertilizing it ("Overwintering"). In other words, you want to keep doing what you're already supposed to be doing. However, even by doing these tips, not every pepper plant will survive. Some are much harder to overwinter than others and it's almost a "trial and error" type of thing ("Overwintering"). This explains why my cayenne pepper plant and my jalapeño pepper plant died. 

Winter has officially rolled in. It's starting to perform its seasonal job by sending most of the life into a deep sleep. Now that my plants are sleeping for the winter, so must this blog. 

Over the course of the summer and even this project, I've become very fond of my garden and I've learned so much about gardening, life, and the world. This experience has taught me to pay closer attention to the small details and has left me thinking about, wondering about, and questioning everything around me. It's opened me up to new ideas and new perspectives. What started off as a silly little project turned into a huge eye opener, and I'm honestly glad I had the opportunity to take part in this. 

My tiny forest has transformed into an even tinier sleeping forest. For now, I will let my plants sleep the cold away, and in the meantime, I'll let this blog fall into it's own deep slumber. Enjoy your winter wonderlands whatever they may be, stay warm, and sleep well. Goodnight. ♥

Works Cited

"Overwintering Peppers- How to Overwinter Hot Pepper Plants." Hot Pepper Seeds.Com. Hot Pepper Seeds.Com, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.
Rhoades, Heather. "Keeping Peppers Over The Winter: How To Winter Peppers." Gardening Know How. Gardening Know How, 21 Feb. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.

Hardships

What do you do when you get your hopes up just to be let down? Do you feel disappointed? Do you get back up and try again? Do you just shake it off and move on? Life is never an easy path, it's never straight forward, and it throws many curve balls in your direction. We, as people, create many expectations for ourselves and other people. We set goals and wish for the impossible. Unfortunately, not everything always goes how we expect it to. We can hope for the best, but sometimes we only get the worst.

When moving the peppers inside, we expected them to start wilting and dying from shock of the sudden environmental change. However, we hoped that they would continue to thrive and that we'd get some more produce out of them. Luckily, it seemed as if our hopes were becoming more of a reality than a wish. 

After about a week or so, the condition of the plants actually seemed to get better than when they were outside. Notably, the serrano pepper plant started to grow more leaves and even started blossoming some flowers. However, none of the flowers ever produced any peppers. They only wilted and died. Every time a flower blossomed, I would get excited that a pepper may come, but then when it didn't, I became very disappointed. This disappointment I was feeling sparked some curiosity. Why were the flowers dying before they produced anything? After researching some, I found my answer. Even though pepper plants are self-fertilizing plants, they sometimes require assistance from their environment. This assistance usually comes from the wind or bees. They assist in shaking the pollen around in the flowers, thus pollinating the flowers (De Jauregui). Because they are inside, there's no outside factors like these to assist in the process. This led me to my second question. How can I help pollinate the flowers so that I can actually get some produce out of it? With some more research, I discovered that it only takes a simple flick or shake of the flower to move the pollen around enough to begin the pollinating process (Epler). I was extremely excited when I found this out, because I thought maybe I could solve the problem that was irritating me the most. There was one flower left on the serrano plant, so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, I was a little too harsh with the flower, and I flicked it right off the stem. My simple solution turned into another curve ball. 

After a few more weeks, I noticed some more changes. The cayenne pepper plant was starting to turn brown and all its leaves had fallen off. I was really hoping this one would make it because it had produced the most peppers out of all the others. As it started to die, I was again feeling disappointed that it wasn't surviving and I couldn't save it. The only thing I was able to do was pick off the remaining four peppers. Even though I was upset about it, I realized that there was nothing I could do about it, and that I had to just let it go and move on. It's unfortunate, but at the same time it was inevitable.

During the time I've had this garden, I've experienced a roller coaster of thoughts and emotions. It may seem strange to someone that a simple vegetable garden can cause so many emotions, but I don't think you'll ever understand some of the struggles that a garden comes with until you care for your own. It's a lot of sitting around, watching, waiting, and hoping. You hope for produce, healthy plants, no bugs, and perfect conditions. That would be the easy way, but it doesn't always work like that. You set your expectations high and hope for the best possible outcome. Unfortunately, the curve balls you wanted to avoid always seem to hit you at some point. 

Everyone goes through ups and downs in their life. But what amount of strength does it take to get over things? I believe all your strength comes from the mindset you give yourself. If you believe it, then you are capable of achieving it. And I think that's what really makes you stand strong against the curve balls and hardships that life throws in your direction, because even though sometimes it may seem like it, it's never the end of the world.

Works Cited

De Jauregui, Ruth. "Pollination of Pepper Plants Without Bees." Home Guides. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.

Epler, Melinda Briana. "Gardening 101: How To Hand-Pollinate Tomatoes And Peppers." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Aug. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.