The Simple Garden: How to Start Your Own Garden

If you have a windowsill that gets consistent sunlight, that’s great! That’s probably the most important thing you need. It doesn’t have to be a big windowsill, just big enough to sit a few cups on there.

If you have a windowsill but it doesn’t get consistent sunlight, you’ll need a very small grow light. Small simple grow lights are pretty inexpensive. I recommend this one for someone trying to put together this simple garden.

If you don’t have a windowsill at all, you’ll need the grow light and some spot in your home or apartment that’s maybe 4 to 6 inches wide and maybe two feet long. A side table is perfect for this, or maybe a shelf somewhere.

You’ll need a few plastic cups. A Solo-type plastic cup is perfect for this. You’ll want a small handful of them. You’ll also want something that can poke tiny holes in the bottom of the cup, like a small knife or a nail.

You’ll need some aluminum foil. The aluminum foil will form a shallow bowl under the plants that will catch any extra water that might seep out. You can also use saucers if you want.

You’ll need some seeds. I’ll get back to the specifics of this in a minute, but you can get the seeds you need at any garden store or order them online from wonderful places like Seed Savers.

You’ll need some dirt. Any dirt you can find outside will work, but it might be low quality dirt, which means your plants may not thrive in it at first. You may want to buy a tiny bag of potting soil if you want great results immediately. You can order this online, too – this is really good stuff. However, if you have access to soil somewhere outside, just fill up a bowl or other large container with it and you’re good to go.

A little bit of gravel or a few packing peanuts are also good to have, though not essential. These merely help with drainage of your soil, ensuring that your plants don’t flood with water.

A bit of newspaper is nice but optional. It’ll make things a little less messy.

Given the size and depth of soil you can fit in a Solo cup, you’re going to be looking at smaller things. Herbs work great, as do small root vegetables (like small carrots or turnips, understanding that you’ll get results that are “baby carrot” sized). You could also grow a very small quantity of lettuce per cup.

For this setup, I would strongly focus on herbs. You can grow all kinds of fresh herbs from this type of garden, cutting them and using them as needed, and they’ll grow successfully for a long time.

So, start by asking yourself what kinds of herbs you like in your food. Basil? Oregano? Cilantro? Dill? Chives? What flavors do you really enjoy? You should start with herbs that you actually like in your food and would be excited to cook with.

For example, if you flip for things like mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives, grow chives. If you love making pasta with tomato and basil, grow basil. If you like salmon with dill sauce, grow dill. Focus on the flavors that appeal to you.

Once you’ve decided what to grow, you’ll want to gather the supplies together from the checklist above. This likely means ordering seeds online or buying them at a local store, possibly getting a tiny grow light and finding some soil. If you don’t have any packing peanuts (you only need a few), get some gravel from a gravel road or a parking lot — you won’t need a ton. You probably have the other items around your house like aluminum foil and Solo cups.

You’ll need to water the plants occasionally — aim for every few days to start with, or follow the directions on the seed packet or from online research about the specific herb you’re growing. If the top of the soil feels dry, just put a little bit of water in there. Try to avoid overwatering — if you see water sitting on the surface or building up in the aluminum foil “bowl,” that’s too much. If there’s a lot of water in the foil, you may want to get the extra out of there.

If you gathered soil from outside, you may have a few weeds — usually just grass. Pull out anything that isn’t the herbs that you want to grow.

In a week or two, you should see tiny plants emerging from most of the seeds you planted. Follow the guidance on the back of the seed packet for how to thin that specific herb. You don’t want to add too much.

Your plants will need some food, too. You can actually make a really cheap fertilizer by saving a few vegetable scraps, blending them with water until it’s basically vegetable broth, and using that for watering your plants. You can supplement that by saving eggshells, cleaning them thoroughly and letting them dry. Then put those shells in a freezer Ziploc bag and smash those shells into oblivion so that they become a powder. Put a tiny amount of that powder in each cup — maybe 1/8 of a teaspoon, spread around. You don’t need to do this very often, maybe once every few months.

If it looks like your plants aren’t growing well, they may need some actual fertilizer beyond the suggestions above. If they look withered or pale, buy a small container of garden fertilizer at the store or order it online (here’s a bag of 50 herb fertilizer spikes that will do the trick for less than $5).

When they appear to be growing well, do some research into the type of herbs you have and determine when it is time to harvest that kind of herb and how to do so. Many herbs can be partially harvested and will continue to grow and produce more for quite a long time, as long as you keep watering and fertilizing.

It requires very little in terms of supplies and time — the initial part is the only time-intensive part. Once your herbs are going, they just require a bit of occasional water and maybe a bit of occasional food and weeding. In your apartment or house, they should be pest free and disease-free.

As they grow, you’ll find yourself with a steady supply of amazingly flavorful fresh herbs which you can use in all kinds of dishes. Tossing a bit of fresh basil with tomatoes and pasta is amazing!