The east-facing porch shelters many potted plants.

But look! Among them, I found a few without greenery but full of soil.

At the same time, I had some seeds left from spring sowing. Could I try growing them for late crops?

Part of me said, “No! Sunlight is growing weaker as autumn comes nearer and sunshiny hours shorten each day.” But a little impish voice whispered, “Why not? Go for it!”

I strewed lettuce and basil seeds in a clumsy pot and covered them with fresh potting soil. Basil is a tender annual, so it should hurry to produce even a pair of true leaves. However, those leaves will still be aromatic enough to add to my own sliced tomatoes.

Lettuce, which hates too much summer heat, may yield a little salad. Like the basil, its seeds germinated, leaving the soil in that pot polka-dotted with little green seedlings.

A few Swiss chard plants have popped up in another pot. Chard can stand cool weather once it’s past the seedling stage; but it needs full sun to grow. I’ll thin the Swiss chard sprouts now.

In the last pot, thready little carrot leaves have appeared. It’s definitely the moment to thin the crop — for the first time.

Notice that none of these vegetables are being grown for their flowers. For that goal, much more of the sun’s heat and light is needed.

My growing conditions are limited: light is moderated by the side of the building, and the porch is unheated. The real cold weather will be the cut-off point. At that point, I’ll have discovered how much these vegetables can stand. If I repeat the test next year, I’ll start earlier in August, or even in July to learn more about the capability of porch climate to produce late-season yields.

What trials have you invented to answer your curiosity in growing plants?