I'm not the best one to answer, GarnerGarden. My plan is always to clear and clean the gardens by November 1st. Mostly, this has to do with gardening on other people's property. "They" seem to like looking at bare dirt 6 months out of the year.

I am also not much of a container gardener. (Altho', I've gotta say that my 3 tomato plants in 5 gallon containers sure look a lot better than my tomato plants in the open garden this year! Dang wind.) If you are thinking of growing outdoors in containers - wow. That block of frozen soil may not do it for you as a growing medium.

I will be moving some Asian greens into an unheated greenhouse for the winter. This will be mostly bok choy. I grow a lot of that green and not only because we have a lot of stir-fry in this home. It can handle cool weather conditions.

Bok choy bolts in hot weather - however, it also seems to "want" to bolt if it is coming out of severe cold. In other words, stress from the cold results in quick bolting as soon as it warms up. If it is just living thru a couple of light frosts, young bok choy can handle that. It grew very well in that greenhouse last winter. I used 15of outdoor temperatures as a guide as to when to cover it in the greenhouse with a 2nd layer of plastic film. Sub-zero had me pulling a tarp over it, as well.

My first volunteer/overwintered crop in the garden is Purple Orache. It is a fairly close spinach relative so that doesn't add much to your ideas. Any chance you will have some open ground to plant in or a way to protect your balcony containers this winter?

Steve

If you like cilantro, that grows well in the fall as well as in containers.

I know kale grows well into the fall, as do beets, but I dunno if the seeds will germinate on time.

Thanks for the info guys. I won't have any ground for at least another year or so. Gotta re-sign where I'm at for now and see how things go after that. Hopefully I'll have a yard one day lol. I may just give the ol balcony a rest for this season and focus on what I can do inside.

I have something in mind, or am trying to come up with a plan, for an indoor herb garden over-winter. I thought I could bring in a few of the herbs from the balcony and some I'm propagating in the greenhouse at school... I have a light or two, but I also have a vengeful house cat who may foil my plans entirely. We shall see...we shall see.