Anyone created a winter garden on their porches?

[Sabz]

While reading on increasing the temperature in my high tunnels, I often read about rocks, brick or any kind of dense material like that to capture heat and release it at night.

My front porch is straight south. Gets a LOT of sun. I have a red brick wall on my house and the porch is made of concrete, with a ramp all around it. It heats up well during the day and it is still warm long after the sun set.

So I thought it would be really easy to close the whole porch with plastic and make a winter greenhouse out of it!

But of course, porch being concrete I would need pots for the vegetables. And this is my concern. Being in a pot (I'd take a really big Rubbermaid container) would the night temperature be too low for the plants? I mean, the pots would lose heat faster than the soil on the ground, so would that greenhouse work? I could insulate the rubbermaid containers also.

So if anyone even attempted this, let me know I found no images on Google, strange.. I thought someone tried for sure!

 

[lazy gardener]

I suggest that you get your hands on this book: http://www.amazon.com/Four-Season-H...bles-Garden/dp/0930031571/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

It will give you lots of options, and is just a good read. One of my favorite season extenders is a hay bale cold frame. It gives me greens until Thanksgiving, and then again, starting in March in my zone 4 garden. While your porch might do great, you may find that keeping the plants in the soil is a good option as well. You might experiment with both options so all of your eggs are not kept in one basket.