Grow Something on the Kitchen Counter You Can Eat

 

You don’t need a vegetable garden, a greenhouse, or even a backyard to grow something worth eating.

Sometimes all you need is a sunny kitchen window and a few inches of counter space.

There is something deeply satisfying about snipping fresh herbs for supper or harvesting crisp sprouts that were seeds only a few days before. It is gardening reduced to its simplest form: seed, water, light, patience—and something fresh for the table.

Better still, kitchen-counter gardening can be done throughout the year.

A Garden Within Arm’s Reach

Most gardening requires a certain amount of planning. We prepare beds, watch the weather, wait for the proper season, battle weeds, and occasionally surrender a promising crop to insects, rabbits, deer, drought, or some other member of nature’s vast conspiracy against the gardener.

Growing food indoors is considerably simpler.

A small container beside the kitchen window can produce herbs, microgreens, sprouts, or even another crop of green onions. Because the garden is only a few feet from where meals are prepared, it is also more likely to be used.

There is no journey to the garden with basket and boots. Reach over, take what you need, and leave the rest growing.

Start With Microgreens

Microgreens are among the easiest edible crops to grow indoors.

They are young vegetable and herb seedlings harvested shortly after their first true leaves begin to appear. Broccoli, radish, sunflower, mustard, kale, peas, and many other plants can be grown this way.

Seeds are sown thickly in a shallow tray containing a little growing medium or on a mat designed for microgreen production. Keep them moist, give them adequate light, and many varieties can be ready to harvest in little more than a week.

Cut them just above the growing surface with clean scissors.

Microgreens can be sprinkled over salads, tucked into sandwiches, added to soups just before serving, or used as a fresh garnish. Radish and mustard provide a surprising little bite. Pea shoots are tender and sweet. Sunflower microgreens have a pleasant nutty character.

A tray of them on the counter is also rather handsome—which is more than can be said for many things we keep on kitchen counters.

Sprouts Require Even Less Space

If you have room for a jar, you have room to grow sprouts.

Unlike microgreens, sprouts don't require soil or even much light. Seeds intended specifically for sprouting are soaked and then rinsed and drained regularly while they germinate. Depending upon the variety, they may be ready in only a few days.

Broccoli, alfalfa, radish, mung beans, lentils, and various seed mixtures are commonly used.

Cleanliness is particularly important when growing sprouts because the warm, moist conditions that encourage germination can also encourage unwanted microorganisms. Use seeds sold for sprouting, keep your equipment clean, rinse according to directions, and refrigerate the finished crop promptly. People at higher risk from foodborne illness should follow current food-safety guidance concerning raw sprouts.

Give Green Onions Another Chance

Here may be the cheapest kitchen garden of all.

The next time you buy green onions, don't throw away the white bases with their roots attached. Place them upright in a small container with the roots in water while keeping most of the bulb above the waterline.

Fresh green growth should soon appear.

Change the water regularly and put the container where it receives good light. You can snip the tops as needed for potatoes, soups, eggs, salads, and other dishes.

Eventually the plants will weaken if grown only in water. Moving them into potting soil can keep them productive longer.

It is a small thing, certainly. But our grandparents would have understood the principle immediately: if something still has usefulness in it, why throw it away?

Keep Fresh Herbs Close at Hand

A sunny kitchen window can also support a small collection of culinary herbs.

Basil is an obvious choice during warm weather. Parsley, chives, thyme, oregano, mint, and cilantro are possibilities, though their requirements differ. Mint tolerates somewhat less light than many Mediterranean herbs, while rosemary and thyme generally want all the sunshine you can give them.

Good drainage is essential. Herbs sitting constantly in soggy soil seldom prosper.

Don't assume that indoor plants need frequent watering simply because they are indoors. Feel the soil first. Water when appropriate, allow excess water to drain, and don't leave the pot standing indefinitely in a saucer full of water.

And harvest them. Herbs are not supposed to become untouchable houseplants. Pinching and cutting many culinary herbs encourages bushier growth while providing exactly what you grew them for.

Try Wheatgrass or Cat Grass

Wheatgrass is another simple countertop crop. It grows quickly from seed and produces a thick patch of fresh green growth.

Similarly, cat grass—often grown from wheat, oat, barley, or rye seed—can provide indoor cats with greenery of their own.

The great advantage of these crops is speed. There is something encouraging about sowing a tray and seeing it turn vividly green within days, particularly during the gray months when the outdoor garden is asleep.

What About Lettuce?

Leaf lettuce can be grown indoors, but it generally needs more light and room than sprouts and microgreens. A very sunny window may suffice during certain seasons, though supplemental grow lights make the results much more dependable.

If you want to experiment, choose compact loose-leaf varieties and harvest individual outer leaves rather than waiting for full heads.

The same principle applies to many indoor edibles: grow crops for leaves rather than fruit.

Trying to produce a respectable tomato crop on a dim kitchen windowsill can become an exercise in disappointment. Growing radish microgreens there is much more sensible.

Light Is Usually the Limiting Factor

Our eyes are remarkably good at adjusting to indoor light, which can fool us into believing a room is brighter than it really is.

Plants are not fooled.

Place edible plants near your brightest suitable window, usually a south-facing one if available. If seedlings become pale, weak, and stretched toward the window, they are asking for more light.

A simple grow light can greatly expand what you can grow and can make winter countertop gardening much easier. It doesn't have to turn your kitchen into a commercial greenhouse. A modest light over a small growing area is enough for many herbs and greens.

Begin Small

It is tempting to purchase trays, pots, lights, seeds, growing media, gadgets, and enough equipment to establish a small agricultural college.

Don't.

Start with one thing.

Grow a jar of sprouts. Sow a tray of microgreens. Regrow some green onions. Put a pot of basil beside the window.

Learn what succeeds in your particular kitchen.

Then grow another.

Gardening has always been partly about self-reliance—the quiet satisfaction of producing something useful with your own hands. A kitchen-counter garden may not fill the pantry or feed a family through winter, but that isn't really the point.

You planted a seed.

You tended it.

And now you're eating it.

That's gardening, whether the garden covers forty acres or twelve inches beside the kitchen sink.

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