I thought I’d write a little post describing how we have prepared (deconstructed) the balcony garden for winter. The process was based on what we thought would be a good idea, and a few websites [I'll add the links here when I'm on the other computer] that we read about storing terracotta pots for the winter.
Since we don’t have a lot of storage room indoors (it’s been invaded by my collections of oh-so-cute stories and poems that date all the way back through kindergarten), we decided to store everything on the balcony through the winter. After I cut down all the foliage left on the plants after a few light frosts, we yanked the plants out by the roots
and shook the potting soil from the roots into a large plastic (and hopefully waterproof) container.
This left us with little plant pompoms. So fun 
Next we emptied all the remaining soil from the pots into the plastic bin to use next year. (Note to self: get a trowel! Using a screwdriver to scrape stubborn soil clods is tedious 
) We were surprised that the tomatoes’ and peppers’ roots didn’t penetrate a depth past about halfway into the pot. We had expected them to be totally root-bound.
I considered scrubbing/cleaning the pots with a bleach solution to rid them of the green moss/mold that had been growing up the sides, but I decided to wait to do that until the spring. It’s been getting a lot colder, and I didn’t want to wet down the pots 1) because if there is a harder frost, they might crack, and 2) because I didn’t feel like being wet when it’s chilly out.
So last Sunday, we stacked the pots three-high upside-down with 4 or 5 layers of bubble wrap between their bases to keep them from touching too much (if one expands/contracts and cracks, hopefully this will prevent the one next to it from cracking, too). We covered the stacks with garbage bags to keep them from getting wet and stored them at the end of the balcony not easily seen through the windows
So the lesson to take home from this rambly post is that our garden is ready for winter.
man you guys are troopers!
i thought that you’d both be pooped after each sunday with all the hard work you put into church! 
Well, it took a lot of prodding from my husband to get me out of my slippers and into sneakers to take down the pots.
But in the end it wasn’t as bad as I thought (especially since I was too lazy to actually do the pot scrubbing/washing)!
Hey [gardengeekette]
otherwise I will MISS your blog updates each week 
You are going to have to continue blogging about something, now that your plants are retired for the winter
Don’t worry, I’ll think of something to blog about!
I couldn’t let Vegetablog languish over the winter!