Welcome evejk-

I've tried overwintering peppers (small ones, under 2') and it worked quite well. It gave the plants a good start the following spring but the work involved made starting over with seed more appealing. At 6' that may be a bit daunting. Peppers need a fair amount of sun and I don't recall mine going dormant (like some house plants).

Strawberries are perennial, tomatoes are annuals.

Cutting back will vary depending on what you are cutting back. A New York or New Enland aster just planted in August I'd pretty much leave until it turned brown and fell over on it's own just to make sure it stored enough energy for next year.

For winter mulch, I use 6-8 inches of dry leaves held down by evergreen boughs.

tj

Welcome Eve! Doesn't matter that you're in Chicago. Like you said, our weather is pretty much the same. I've had bell peppers and banana peppers reseed. I was surprised to see those plants come up the next summer. I got peppers on them too. My tomato plants reseed every year. I have the yellow cherry tomatoes and I try different big red ones every year. Next year I won't bother buying any yellow ones, because I get so many seedlings the next year.
The only perennials I cut down are my phlox. They get powdery mildew every year so I do a clean up on them in Fall. The rest I just leave. I don't have any bug/rodent/disease problems except the pm, so I just leave the other perennials stand. Some perennials make it thru winter better when you don't cut them back until Spring. As for mulch, I mostly use cocoa bean mulch. I also use grass clippings, leaves, straw or pine needles. I don't like bark mulch because it's very slow to break down. The mulches I use I usually turn back into the soil in Spring and put fresh mulch down. In the Fall I let the leaves stay where they fall in the gardens. I don't have a lot of trees around, but I do have a huge Linden in my backyard where the leaves will cover that garden.
Sometimes you have to experiment with different mulches to see what works best in your gardens.
Good luck!

Kat

Hi all! Thanks for the advice. Tsuga, when you overwintered your peppers, did you cut them back? Or did you just let the leaves fall off and leave the stalk bare?

Since strawberries are perennial, do I need to cover them with the mulch I put down, or does it not matter because the leaves can break down and be turned into the soil?
Katush, that's a good point about the bark mulch breaking down slowly. I've noticed that and was wondering what I will do for next year. Although, thankfully, it seems that most of my bark mulch either blew away or was washed away.
Thanks again all!

I call trimming services and ask if they have shredded spruce. I get a truckload and let it cool down, then use everywhere. By the time I get to the bottom of a truckload, it's half decomposed and mixed with huge worms :)

A friend of mine got a small green house for peppers. She said that some of her hot ones did not have long enough season and this way she gets twice the amount of peppers later in the fall.

Eve- As I recall (it was some time ago) when I overwintered the peppers they kept their leaves and did not go dormant. I may have cut the branches back just a node or two for size reasons when I brought them in. They did not act like a perennial, per se, in that they died to the ground and resprouted, rather, they just kept green throughout the winter.

tj

Hi TJ, sorry I'm asking so many questions, but did you actually dig up your peppers and bring them into your house?
Great idea on the green house, enya! I would have to rig up something separate for that, but I think I can try it next year. The peppers I brought in (about 7 of them) turn their true colors! I was so surprised to walk into my kitchen and see 1 red pepper and 1 yellow bell instead of a pile of 7 green ones. they are so colorful and beautiful, I really hope I can keep these pepper plants alive!
One other question, do worms live out the winter? I like the spruce trimmings for mulch idea, might be too late for me to get that though. I have absolutely got to mulch this weekend or I won't have time until the end of november. I think that would be too late...
You guys are great. I really dig this forum! Thanks all!

Yes, Eve, I potted the peppers up and brought them in.

Worms go below the frost line for winter

As for mulching, its usually best to wait until the ground freezes before you mulch. That way the little rodents will have found a home elsewhere by then. End of November might be the perfect time.

tj

TJ, you have no idea how happy i am to read that mulching can wait! I had WAAAAYYY to much to drink last night and the first thing I thought when I woke up was "Oh crap I have to mulch today! UGH..."
So I am debating whether I should even bother brining in my green peppers. A 6' tall plant doesn't work too well in an apartment. (Let alone 2 of them...) I would really love to keep them, though.
So do rodents carry off mulch? I had to remulch my garden this summer because one day, there just was no more mulch. It happened gradually, but then one day, I just noticed I had no mulch at all!

Eve, rodents won't carry off the mulch, they'll live under it. Just depends on what kind you have and if they want to live there! LOL!
I leave the mulch on that I've had thru the summer. I don't add anymore. I do mound some plants, like my roses and my hydrangea 'Endless Summer' with compost/cow manure. I mound those around 12" high and at least that wide at the bottom of the plants. I do this just after Thanksgiving. I have to admit though, the ground isn't usually frozen by then, but that's the time I have to get it done and I don't care to do this when it's really cold! :) Later than that, I'm just too busy with the holidays coming up.
Myself, for the pepper plants, I would just buy new ones in the Spring. I don't have the room or the time to keep most plants over winter. I have kept cuttings of coleus because they are so easy to keep over winter. I plant those cutting ups (just 2) and start more in early Spring from the ones I kept over winter.

Kat

Hi Kat, I do live in Chicago, so I think the squirrels might find my little mulched patch of earth cozy looking! City squirrels are like the hillbilly version of normal squirrels! Ok, this is probably a stupid question, but when you say you mound your roses and hydrangea...do you mound the mulch that high around them or do you raise the dirt level up higher than the other plants when you plant them? (I did that with my strawberries and my green peppers--I guess what I'm asking is: is mounding the same as placing the center of the plant on a hill?)

I actually did decide to just plant new peppers...we are doing Thanksgiving in my apartment, and I just don't have the room for family, cats and all of my indoor plants plus 2 6' peppers!