Grow your own food indoors: Herbs and vegetables thrive in small spaces

Even without a garden, city dwellers can cultivate their own food indoors or on small balconies. Horticulturalist Justin Calverley highlights that with basic needs like light, water, and nutrients met, plants can thrive almost anywhere.

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On a windowsill, if you keep it very simple, you could grow lettuces, because they have very small root systems that could fit in a baked bean tin.

Calverley suggests that for beginners, Asian greens and herbs are the easiest to grow. Lettuces, with their small root systems, are ideal for windowsills, fitting even in small containers. Other recommended indoor plants include coriander, curly parsley, and dill. For those with balconies or outdoor areas, winter vegetables like spinach, kale, peas, broccoli, and cauliflower can be successfully grown in pots, keeping weight limitations in mind.

Wendy Siu-Chew Lee, an experienced small-space gardener, emphasizes the benefits of "cut-and-come-again" harvesting. This method, where only outer leaves are picked, allows plants like lettuce to regrow and provide a continuous harvest without needing to be replanted. This approach offers the best return for beginner gardeners.

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Asian greens such as pak choy and bok choy, Coriander, Curly parsley, Dill

Beyond personal benefits, growing food at home contributes to urban sustainability and offers mental and physical health advantages, according to Professor Xiaoqi Feng of the University of New South Wales. The practice connects people with their food and environment, even in urban settings.

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You plant one or two lettuces, and you just keep going back and pick leaves as you want and it keeps growing.