What are some "useful" plants that would grow outdoors in the Okanagan(Canada)? It gets to high 30's in the summer and floats around 0 in the winter. I don't care if they are legal or not. How about for indoors?

I am not too familiar with any plants that enjoy ice but you can always do some modifications indoors to compensate for some plants. (This post probably didn't help at all.)

Do you mean Fahrenheit or Celsius? That is ridiculously cold if it is Fahrenheit. On second thought I just looked it up and it is celsius which kind of exciting to me. I am in a similar predicament, but I live in a place a bit warmer than you. I have found a surprising amount of interesting plants that I can grow outside:

Ipomoea violacea/tricolor in the summer
Solenostemon scutelarioides/plumei in the summer
Petunia violacea in the summer
Salvia divinorum (outside in the summer and indoors in the winter)
Scutelaria laterifolia/galericulata
Acorus calamus
Datura/Brugmansia
Lobelia inflata
Leonurus sibiricus
Hieracium pilosella
Nicotiana rustica
Phalaris aquatica
Phalaris brachystachys
Desmanthus illinoensis
Artemesia absinthium
Verbascum blattaria
Nepeta cataria

You should be able to grow these plants too with a little bit of work. Most of these plants are mildly psychoactive, unexplored, or take commitment to get them to work but that's the price of living so far north. A lot of these are weedy northern species which is a plus when gardening in the north. I might add to this list as I am sure I have forgotten a few or maybe many. I also omitted some plants as I am not totally sure about what you mean by "useful".

Thank-you PowerfulMedicine. I'll research those and plant the ones I can get that I think will grow. BTW, useful as in psychoactive in some way.

Elf I live in the the same general area as you, with warmer night tempertures, and a bit cooler in the day. Wild Phalaras grows all over here, and probably down by the rivers where you are. Peyote would do awsome in your area if you take it in at winter. I used to live much farther north and I grew four hundred peyotes and over a hundred Trichocereus peruvianus. All of which I keep until they were three years old and then sold. I toke them in at winter, they dont need much light, in fact the Trich's I just keep in the dark until spring. They wont grow of course, but they are after all a cactus and just go dormant until you put them out in the spring. Just keep them dry. Also you could look into russian olive which I believe contains dmt. You could probably get cuttings or root a few branches from someone there.

everybodys growing phalaris. can someone support a link to a phalaris tek?

Not technically "plants", but how about mushrooms? No matter what the indoor temperature, just take two plastic tubs, put some water and an aquarium heater in the first, and put the 2nd container (and mushrooms) into the 1st.

elphologist

I'm in the same predicament my friend. I live right on lake ontario so the conditions here are almost exactly like yours, except winter temperatures drop as low as -20C . So far the only perrenial options here are P. aquatica and P. arundincea. Arundin is good if you harvest them as saplings but theres the whole gramine issue during extraction. Ipomoea is a definite for me next spring! There are alot on PowerfulMedicine's list that I am strongly considering. Good luck! It would be great if we kept eachother up to date on what plants hold up nicely here in the GWN!

Regards,

Periphery

In the Okanagan go for demanthus and Russian olive. That will make a good changa. You can also grow trichocerus bridgesii out doors and Bring it in for the winter, but keep it dry all winter and allow a little frost but not freezing. Those are defintely staples...'fungi in yor area isn't too promising outdoors.