I have recently made a purchase on a house and am going to be moving in within the next few weeks. It is currently to cold here to start planting anything, have already had many frosts, but I want to get a garden started come spring time. I was hoping that some experienced gardeners here could give me some tips on what would survive the best in the climate we have here and what would be good for a first time grower (other then Marijuana) to work with.

I was thinking of starting a cacti collection, maybe only two or three to start with. I know these will not survive the winter and will need to be brought inside during the cold months and allowed to go dormant, I somewhat understand the idea of this but that can be figured out further later on. I however am not sure what cacti would be a good place to start. I was thinking possibly bridgesii.

I also wanted to get some acacia trees growing, but am not sure what trees would be best for a climate that can get down to below zero ferinheight. Can any acacias survive this cold of a climate? It usually is around 0-10 degrees F at the coldest points, but can get to below zero. Would these need to be kept in pots and brought inside during these months? Or can they be allowed to grow outside and will come back during the spring? I was thinking of growing acuminata, maybe having three or four of them. If they are kept in pots and kept small, just bushing them out, I may be able to bring them into the sun room that we have. Its actually going to be a yoga/meditation room so it would be nice to have some magical plants in there.

I am not sure what else would be fun to grow and have its rewards as well as the acacia and bridgesii do. Any suggestions on other plants go get growing would be appreciated. When the spring comes I shall have to upload some photos of the garden area when its made. Any tips on soils would also be appreciated. I plan on making a stone wall, tilling the ground that is already there to get rid of weeds and grass, and filling it in with a good soil up to the top of the stones.

what is your usda zone?

would you have indoor space, or space for a small greenhouse?

heres a quote that might help...


"Perhaps two dozen species (of over 1,200!) of Acacia have been tried here over the years, chiefly at the Arboretum and the U.W. campus. Though they grow rapidly, very cold winters here kill them, so they seldom attain much size--but some resprout from their roots."

TREES OF SEATTLE - SECOND EDITION (2006, Arthur Lee Jacobson)

Before planning the garden bed, figure out what you will want to grow. Things like bridgesii in pots or Acacias in pots that will spend winter inside wont have much use for the fancy (expensive) raised bed. If your growing other entheos and perhaps food and spices there are many things to consider when deciding between raised bed and an on-the-flat garden.
However if your fairly confident of a certain square footage being used to start next years garden dont wait until spring to till the soil, if you do it now the weeds and grass that die will have time to decompose some and most the ones that dont die will show themselves again before you plant crops- giving another chance to kill them when nothing is in the way.
Also consider how much you want to invest, my huge 2500 square foot garden costs about $50 per year because its on the flat and I do most everything with two shovels and a hoe whereas a moderate size raised bed garden made of stone could cost a fortune in the first year and would likely require large inputs of manure and fertilizer yearly.

Gone-and-Back,
I live in a very similair climate zone as you do, allthough posibly a bit colder and more up north.
Frost is common in the winters here and it can get down to -20 C in extreme cases, but it usually stays
between 0 and -10 during the winters here. Those temperatures are most likely to kill any Acacia.

It sucks because I too would love to grow some Acacias.

As for Cacti: You may give that a go. It's easy if you grow some
Cacti if you have a room with a window on the south(assuming you are in the Northern Hemisphere) to make most
of the sunlight in the winters. You could bring them outside in the springs & summers, but I've been growing a
Trichocereus Pachanoi(San Pedro) cactus for over 7 years now in such a room and it's doing fine.
Peyotes are also easy to grow in such conditions. Cacti need little help in such conditions. You just need to
keep the room temperature above minimally 10 degrees Celcius. And if the air gets too humid in there during the
wintertime a dehumidifier could help prevent cacti-rot. hanging sponges on strongs from the ceiling with buckets under them could fulfill that purpose while being dirt cheap.

I understand, once you have a firmly established plant, Salvia Divinorum isn't hard to grow either.
It's a relative of Basil, which is also easy to grow. Try getting some cuttings or seeds of this plant.

Not hugely psychedelic in my opinion, but Artemisia Absynthium is also quite easy to grow. I got a small,
but decently established plant and planted it in my garden. It grew huge and made lots of flowerbuds.

Also, Morning Glories (Which grow LSA containing seeds) are fairly easy to grow in sring and summer.



But to get back to the much desired Acacias...


In the Northern hemisphere I think you'd need to build a high greenhouse with a lamp that recreates sunlight to
get Acacias to survive the winters. You could supplement the lack of winter sunlight with artificial light, but it
would probably significantly heighten your energy bills. Unless you can generate enough energy with a homebuilt
Wind-generator &/or Solar Panel this would probably be an expensive hobby.

Throughout the winter the Acacias would have to be supplied with artificial sunlight and heat. Perhaps also a dehumidifier should be installed. Would there be a relatively low-cost way of doing this?

For Acacias what I've done is to put them in a large sturdy black plastic pot, in the spring plant that pot half the way in the ground and mound the soil around it to protect the pot from the heat/sun. In the fall trim it back to 1.5 meters tall from its soil level and a few days later dig around the pot, sever the roots going out the drain holes, and bring the whole thing indoors for the winter with fluorescent winter lighting. They dont need halides or intense fluoro light, just dont over feed them or you'll be forcing too much growth for the lighting. In the spring repeat the cycle.
I've had a obtusifolia going that way for about 6 years, this year the soil was getting old so I just took it out of the pot and planted it so I could replace the potting soil come fall, that worked fine.

Sorry for the late reply on this, have been very busy lately.

Dg, I do have some indoor space to grow a very few plants, not too many though. I was thinking of using this space for the cacti that I plan to grow. I dont know if it would be enough space for an acacia though, as I do not know if they continue to get larger and larger if planted in a pot, and how large they would get before stopping. I do however at some point want to build a small green house in the back yard, but it would have to be very small as there is not a whole lot of room and I already plan on doing some other stuff back there.

Auxin- I understand that things like the cacti in pots wont need the raised bed, but I plan on growing veggies and spices as well. The raised bed was an idea to keep my dog out of the garden, as she will probably spend a lot of time outside. She cant get enough of being outside. I know it will be more expensive, but I dont know what else to do other then some chicken wire fencing to keep her out and I would like to keep it as visually appealing as possible. There is a raised bed in the front of the house, but I dont want people in the neighborhood possibly taking some of my crops.
By the time I move in, there will probably be snow on the ground anyways. So digging it up before the spring is not an option.

Ska- Is it that important that they are placed in a South facing window? I am not sure if the room I will be putting them in is facing south or not, but its the only room that I feel comfortable placing them in because it can be closed off from the rest of the house. I dont want my dog getting curious and possibly poking herself with the spines. I would love to be able to get some peyotes growing so that I wouldnt have to worry about that, but they cant be bought like a bridgesii or trich can unfortunately. Maybe one day I will be lucky enough to meet someone who has some seeds or some extra cacti they dont want .
The salvia is a great idea as well, but my state outlawed it years ago so acquiring a cutting or seeds would be nearly impossible. Plus I do want to try to keep it to being legal plants, excluding the peyote at least. Never know if someone who comes over would recognize it and freak out.
The morning glories were a plan as well, there is already a set up in the back yard that the previous owners were growing grapes on, these plants could be taken down and replaced with morning glories very easily. However, with the mass amount of seeds needed for an extraction, I am not sure if this is a good way to go. I do not know how many seeds are produced per plant or flower.

As far as acacias go, everyone here has kind of made me realize its going to be much harder then I thought to grow one here in my climate. I think I am going to toss this idea out the window for now until I one day down the road acquire much more land where a green house can be built. I just dont have the space or money for this right now.

So I found that the room I was going to be placing the cactus in during the winter only has one very small south facing window. The two big windows in the room face east, which is where almost all the light comes in from. Can this still be used effectively for keeping a cactus alive in its dormant period?

Sure, once fully dormant cacti dont need light at all. Just be careful re-introducing them to light or they might get sunburned.
The critical thing is the night time low temps. Many collectible cacti wont survive a freeze.

So as long as they are inside in a decent temp. then it will be fine? Those are the only thing I think I will be having inside now, as they are the only entheogen I think I will attempt to grow until I have enough room for a decent sized green house. The rest shall be actual food that can be replanted each year.

Yeah, if the soils dry and they arent stored in too warm of temps they'll be fine.
If they are not fully dormant (ie. if the soil only just dried out) they may etiolate, get skinny pale sections on top. But that just makes them look funny

Well then it shouldnt be too hard to keep them going! I plan on getting a few cuttings at once, and planting them all. After they grow about twice the size, maybe take cuttings of all of them and replant, giving twice the cacti. From then on out, take cuttings every year or so, depending on growth rate, and let the intact part regrow over the next year. Those cuttings will be used for tea or extraction.

I also want to try my hand at the fun guys, but thats all indoor and doesnt require a garden space. Unless growing wood loving species, but thats more advanced then I care to get into for now.

If you have a reasonable degree of privacy in your back yard, poppies are lovely flowers.

I'm not suggesting you grow them to harvest opium, but they are beautiful flowers, with a long history, and their beds tend to be self-sowing, so you'll have them year after year.

Blessings
~ND

That sounds wonderful ND, I have often wanted to grow poppies. However, they are illegal, so I do not know how one would go about getting seeds. Unless the seeds you buy for food would work for growing?

We actually would have a lot of privacy so it could work if I find a way to get the seeds.