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Cherry or grape tomatoes are easy to grow on your windowsill. Try Sweet Million, Sungold, or Tom Thumb.

  1. Indoor Gardening 101
  2. How to Start an Indoor Veggie Garden
  3. Tips to Succeed with Starting Seeds  
Top Picks for Veggie-Growing Newbies

 

By Jodi DeLong


If you’re new to growing vegetables it’s always good to build up your confidence by growing crops that are relatively easy, with short seasons and a minimum of fuss to get them to maturity. Start off with any of these, and they should shoot to success.


 

Salad Greens

Whether you like ‘lettuce alone’ or a variety of different greens in your salad, there are many seed blends suited for harvesting young, tender leaves. 

Radish

Sow only a few seeds at a time, about once a week, to ensure a steady supply of young, tender radishes.

Beets

Look for baby beets such as Pablo, varieties that don’t grow too large and mature within 45-50 days. You can harvest greens to thin the crop, or simply wait for beets.

Tomatoes

Try cherry or grape tomatoes such as Sweet Million, Sungold or Tom Thumb, or non-staking varieties such as Scotia.

Peppers

Compact varieties of sweet or hot peppers need plenty of heat and light, like their relatives tomatoes.

Swiss Chard and Spinach

As with radishes, sow a row at a time, every couple of weeks, to ensure a small, steady crop of these greens for salads or cooking.

Herbs

Among the easiest herbs to grow indoors from seed are chives, parsley, coriander, basil, and rosemary. Make sure to plant only one type of herb in each pot, as herbs have different heat and water requirements, as per seed package instructions.

 

Mint and mint relatives such as oregano and thyme tend to want to spread and grow crowded in containers unless divided regularly. Dill grows too tall for most people’s indoor preferences, as does lovage. If you want tarragon, make sure to purchase French tarragon as a plant, because it does not grow from seed. The only from-seed tarragon is far inferior in flavour.

   

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