Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Hi gardeners!

I'm away all summer (doing farm-work!), but I will move in to a new apartment 1 September and there I will have a balcony with glass windows! I want to start growing things in pot, but I feel very impatient to wait until spring. Is there anything I could start growing in September? It could of course get to be totally inside during the nights if needed.

I guess it depends on where your place is, light and warmth.

How about microgreens, as explained by Gayla Trail?

Yeah, tell us the location, and I'm sure we can come up with something. There's always growing certain fruit trees indoor. If it's a bright spot! (I've read about growing certain limes, lemons, kumquats and bananas).

My guess though for the more standard answer for outside will be kale, garlic, onions.

Oh I forgot to tell you. It's in Sweden unfortunately, but pretty far south. It won't be very warm, but it might be sunny! I've heard about planting garlic in the autumn for harvest next summer, so I will probably do that.

Garlic, kale, and some other greens. Snow Peas thrive in 55-65 degree temps. If you like flowers, you can buy established hardy mums and plant those too! Do you have access to a cold frame? That's even better--you'll extend your growing season by another month.

You can also grow just about anything in the winter under the right lighting system. If you're just growing greens, you can get by with a florescent system, but if you plan on growing a tomato or pepper plant, you'll need an HID system. I would think hydro would be very big in Sweden because the growing season is so short.

Cool! I will try my luch with some kale. I don't have a cold frame, what is that?

A cold frame is like a mini greenhouse. You can find them super cheap on the internets, and you can make a punk rock one by encasing your plants in plastic. There are some pics here in the gardening forum of various approaches with cold frames.

hey, can i jump in on this thread, too? or is that bad etiquette?

i'm moving into a place with a huge deck at the beginning of august. i'm in seattle and one half of the deck gets great light but the other half is pretty shady.

ideas?

How about radishes? They have a very short growing season and like cool weather.

i've found that going on gardenweb and searching for other people in the same zone works for me- local stuff is unreliable but there are plenty of other Zone 9B gardeners who like to share their info. I found my zone on a site like this one
http://treesandshrubs.about.com/gi/o.ht ... s/hze.html

Honestly people... I have a secret to tell you. Just go to a nursery at the time you want to plant something and buy a start of something they have for sale. I find it highly unlikely they will sell something that cannot be planted at that time. Also, they usually have really really friendly employees who'd love to answer you questions of "can I plant this now on my deck?" and "when will this be ready to harvest?".

:)

+1. Mars is today's winner!

Yay! Thanks!

I revived this thread because I thought it was a pretty decent article:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic- ... arden.aspx

Yeah-yeah, M.E.N.-(woah, the acronym!) isn't that awesome of a publication. Take what you like and leave the rest. *Consider it a nutritional kernel of corn in that piece of crepe magazine.

*Yep, that was bisque-y.