...the weather turns frosty and your plants are too delicate to survive outdoors?

I'm part of a community garden in downtown Chicago. The reason I participate is because I have no gardening space where I live. I LOVE my little garden. But I don't know what's going to happen with my penta and other perennials come this fall when they need to come indoors.

Any suggestions?

Hi Lisa -

I use community garden space because I don't have any yard at all where I live. We don't plant any perennials because the area gets tilled and cleaned up about the end of October every year, depending on the weather. If I do have any perennials, it's herbs, and I just throw them in a pot and bring them in the house and put them under grow light. Any flowers I grow are all annuals. Then the plots get tilled again for us in the spring and we begin planting our veggies for the season.

Jan

Can you make your own cloches or cold frames? I live in USDA Zone 8, pretty mild, but you could make a pretty effective and cheap cold frame by taking 4 hay bales and making them into a square with a space in the center. Put your tender plants in the space, mulch them well with additional hay/straw, and place a transparent piece of plastic or a cheap (free!) old windowpane on top. The straw insulates well, blocks wind well, and composts well when you're ready to garden in the spring. It may work!

Good luck!

Kendra Wise

Lisa, you can forget about your penta because it is an annual up here, not perennial. It would be perennial if this was Florida. As for any perennials, unless they dig up your space, just mulch them and they should survive. If you need to dig them up, you must overwinter them in pots in an unheated space, like a garage. Perennials need cold for dormancy; that's the way perennials work, that is a perennial's natural cycle.