Grow at home
Start with something that works
You do not need a garden. These eight all grow in a pot, and each one has a step-by-step guide with the problems you should actually expect.
Herbs
- easywindowsill
Basil
Ocimum basilicum
The fastest way to prove to yourself that growing food works. From seed to first harvest in about six weeks on a sunny windowsill.
- Light
- At least 6 hours of direct sun
- Time to harvest
- 5-6 weeks from sowing to first picking.
- very easywindowsill
Mint
Mentha spicata
So vigorous it is hard to kill, and so invasive it should always be kept in its own pot.
- Light
- 3-6 hours
- Time to harvest
- 4 weeks from a cutting.
Vegetables
- very easywindowsill
Spring onions
Allium fistulosum
Almost impossible to fail with, and they regrow after cutting — one sowing can crop several times.
- Light
- 4+ hours of sun
- Time to harvest
- 8 weeks from seed, or about 3 weeks if regrowing from roots.
- very easywindowsill
Cut-and-come-again lettuce
Lactuca sativa
Loose-leaf varieties let you harvest outer leaves repeatedly instead of taking the whole head, so one tray feeds you for weeks.
- Light
- 4-6 hours
- Time to harvest
- 4-5 weeks for baby leaves.
Fruit
- moderatebalcony
Cherry tomato
Solanum lycopersicum
The most rewarding thing you can grow in a pot, and the crop where the difference from shop-bought is most obvious.
- Light
- 6-8 hours of direct sun
- Time to harvest
- 10-12 weeks from transplanting.
- moderatebalcony
Chilli pepper
Capsicum annuum
Compact, heavy-cropping, and genuinely perennial indoors — a chilli plant can crop for several years.
- Light
- 6+ hours of direct sun
- Time to harvest
- 14-18 weeks from sowing — slower than most people expect.
Houseplants
- very easywindowsill
Snake plant
Dracaena trifasciata
The most forgiving houseplant there is. It tolerates low light, dry air, and being forgotten for weeks.
- Light
- Anything from bright indirect to genuinely dim
- Time to harvest
- Not harvested — grown as a foliage plant.
- very easywindowsill
Spider plant
Chlorophytum comosum
Fast-growing, hard to kill, and it produces baby plantlets you can pot up and give away endlessly.
- Light
- Bright indirect light
- Time to harvest
- Not harvested. Plantlets appear from about a year old.
Already have a plant?
Scan it instead. You will get the species, a read on its health, and a care plan built for that specific plant — and you can ask for a full step-by-step grow guide afterwards.
Scan a plant →