Planning ahead for winter

I've just been chatting with Tony about the porch.  It isn't heated but it's been an absolute Godsend for growing cucumbers, tomatoes and a variety of peppers this year.  It'll all come to a halt though as the colder weather starts to creep in. I've decided that I will plant some of the prettier leaved veggies and treat them like houseplants. I'm thinking of things like rainbow chard and some of the hardier Chinese leaves. They'll make really big beautiful plants and be perfectly comfortable on the windowsills in the porch.  If you can think of anything else that might look good in a pot in the porch please let me know. I want to make use of as much space as possible. I'll be planting lettuce in the pedestal planter but wondered if there is a trailing edible plant that might work in there too/instead. One thing I'll be repeating that worked really well was the 'winter sowing' that I did in large milk cartons.  The veggie seeds were simply sown, watered, tucked into a sheltered spot at the bottom of the garden and left to get on with it. They didn't need hardening off and the plants have been really strong. I'll be harvesting tomatoes from some of the winter sown veggies in the next week or so.