The herbs and vegetables that can grow indoors and thrive in small spaces

Even if you live in an apartment or are short on outdoor space, there are ways to grow your own food at home.

Planting herbs and vegetables on windowsills, indoors or on small balconies can be a cost-effective option, as well as benefiting your wellbeing.

Here's what the experts say are the best way to get started this winter.

What can you grow?

The beauty about the plant world is if their basic requirements (light, water, and nutrients) are met, herbs and veggies can grow almost anywhere, says Melbourne/Naarm-based horticulturalist Justin Calverley.

While growing food indoors can be trickier due to varying amounts of light and different types of air, he says certain leaf vegetables and herbs are the easiest to raise.

"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," he explains.

Other veggies and herbs Mr Calverley recommends cultivating in an indoor environment are:

Asian greens such as pak choy and bok choy,

Coriander

Curly parsley

Dill

On a balcony or in other outdoor areas, winter vegetables like spinach, kale, peas, broccoli and cauliflowers are simple to grow in pots (considering weight limitations), Mr Calverley adds.

Longtime small space gardener Wendy Siu-Chew Lee lives in Sydney on Gadigal Country and used to grow her own food on a rooftop balcony in St Ives for almost a decade before moving to her new home.

Ms Chew Lee says for beginner gardeners, greens and herbs offer the best bang for your buck.

Growing plants best suited to the "cut-and-come-again" harvesting method are a simple way to enjoy fresh food throughout the growing season without replanting, she explains.

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

"Cut-and-come again" is a practice where you only harvest the outer mature leaves of a plant, like lettuce, while not disturbing the new leaves and root systems.

The benefits of growing your own food

Cultivating your own herbs and veggies comes with multiple benefits for you, the environment and the sustainability of cities, says Xiaoqi Feng, professor of urban health and environment at the University of New South Wales.

Professor Feng says growing food in an indoor or outdoor environment provides a microdose of nature, especially in built-up urban areas. It can also improve your wellbeing.

"We see that even small interactions with nature, like tending to herbs on a windowsill, can have a measurable benefit for mental and physical health," she says.

"Watching something grow gives you a visible progress and is rewarding, it helps you to reduce stress and anxiety because it helps you create a sense of calm and routine."

Growing your own food also provides opportunities for social interaction, intergenerational bonding and reduced food waste, according to Professor Feng.

She says cooking with herbs, for example, often only requires you to use a small amount, whereas store-bought bunches are large and often end up being wasted.

"When you grow your own, you only harvest what you need and it can sustainably grow back."

It also means you're avoiding the plastic packaging from grocery stores.

"I think it's about a very small but meaningful contribution that leads to a much greener and healthier city."

For Ms Chew Lee, who grows organically, it's also about knowing where her food comes from and avoiding chemically based fertilisers and pesticides.

"I have no chemical inputs, and know I am growing a nutrient-dense, clean food with better taste and food quality," she says.

Saving money when starting out

The early stages of growing your own food will come with some set-up costs, but once established you will often save money on your grocery bills, Ms Chew Lee says.

She shares some thrifty ways to begin your gardening journey.

"Repurposing containers is a great way to go," she says.

Plastic pots at nurseries destined for recycling provide a free opportunity, according to Ms Chew Lee.

And if you are a beginner gardener, starting off with seedlings might be an easier option than seed raising.

If you do opt for seeds, community and council-led seed library projects sprouting up across Australia, will often have seeds for free.

Newcomb Library coordinator Katherine O'Neill says popularity in their nine seed libraries across the Geelong Regional Libraries Corporation has been increasing. Last financial year, they recorded almost 19,000 seed package loans across their libraries.

"It's completely free, anyone can access it, whether they are a library member or not," she says.

Through the seed sharing system, people can loan seed packets, and when harvesting their crops they can donate seeds back to the library.

Ms O'Neill says their seed library program aims to develop local community relationships to improve wellbeing, sustainability and social equity.

"Food security is one of the key factors in our sustainability planning at the seed library, because healthy eating and wellbeing is important for the community."

Food growing mistakes to avoid

Ms Chew Lee says determining what you like to eat, researching the plants' growing cycles and understanding your gardening space are important to avoid disappointment.

"There's no point growing eggplant, which takes a long time to grow, if you're not prepared to wait and you don't eat a lot of it," she says.

Mr Calverley says common mistakes for beginner gardeners are "going too big, too early", not understanding the watering regime and failing to get into the routine of gardening.

"With gardening you need to be present and observe, for example, if it's a hot day, do they [plants] look thirsty?" he says.

"It's essentially building a relationship with your plants to understand how they work."

While it's common to start out ambitious, Mr Calverley suggests learning to grow two basic vegetables each season. He says that will make your growing experience enjoyable and less complex.

"A lot of food gardening is a mindset. And we need to celebrate the small wins," he says."