All right, so I don't know if you can really grow $200 worth of vegetables on your windowsill. It's probably less — but it might be more, depending on what you grow.

The harvest won't be huge. But have you priced salad greens or fresh herbs lately? (And have you ever tasted a real tomato?) Done right, these little spreads will at least pay for their startup costs and may actually make a dent in your food bills.

Just ask Manhattan resident Mike Lieberman, who blogs at Urban Organic Gardener. In three large self-watering containers and a dozen hanging pots on his fire escape, he grew lettuce, kale, chard, cherry tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, and four herbs.

"The first time I harvested a salad, it was overwhelming," says Lieberman. "It (feels) good knowing that it's of my own work, my own effort — and knowing that what I just picked would have cost me $3 if I'd gone to the store."

A fire-escape garden like Lieberman's may not be strictly legal (he says he leaves room for emergency flight). But even a single sunny windowsill can support dill or chives that add real zing to scrambled eggs or salad.

About that salad: Fill a window box with colorful mesclun mixes and your salad will be the star of the table rather than an anemic supporting player.

Best of all, you'll know exactly how fresh it is because you just picked it, and you can limit or eliminate the chemical fertilizers and pesticides common to modern farming.

A balcony increases your options, with delights such as Tomato Tumbler cherry tomatoes (a hybrid developed for hanging baskets), bambino eggplant, red Malabar spinach (a climbing variety), baby Persian cucumbers, Pot of Gold chard, Orange Pixie tomatoes, Super Chili hot peppers and Round Romeo carrots.

This is not a gardening column, so I won't give chapter and verse about pinch-backs or pollination. Instead, I'll offer the basic components and tips on how to keep startup costs low.

Liquid kelp and worm castings

According to a 2009 survey from the National Gardening Association, 31% of American gardeners grow food, and nearly half of those do at least some gardening in containers. The average amount spent on the garden is $70.

"The Impact of Home and Community Gardening in America" (.pdf file) further notes that the wobbly economy isn't the only reason people grow food. Improved flavor, quality and food safety were also frequently cited.

"You know where it came from, how fresh it is — and it wasn't flown in," says Maria Finn, the author of "A Little Piece of Earth: How to Grow Your Own Food in Small Spaces."

Fruits and vegetables are often bred to stand up to transport and long storage, Finn notes, which means that "flavor is not a priority." For those who do their harvesting in supermarkets, freshly picked produce is a revelation.

Growing in a box is not the same as growing in the ground. First off: Do not poach soil from the park or your mom's garden. Containerized plants do best with potting soil because it drains readily, doesn't compact and has no weeds or pests.

The smaller the bag, the more you'll pay, unless you luck into a stupendous loss-leader sale. Consider splitting the cost of a bigger bag with other apartment farmers.

You'll need to fertilize, because every time you water your plant, some nutrients drain away. Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden urges the organic route; liquid fish emulsion and liquid kelp don't cost much, she says. Use at half-strength a couple of times during the summer.

"Fish emulsion can be kind of stinky," Shepherd says, "but you can find deodorized fish emulsion or some other organic fertilizer suitable for containers."

Garden author Finn augments her soil with help from a worm-composting box in her kitchen. The red wigglers eat kitchen scraps, coffee grounds and tea bags, and their nutrient-rich castings (the polite word for worm turds) make containerized veggies happy. It's easy to make a worm-composting box.

Lieberman has had success with worm-free composting. He uses scavenged containers such as an empty cat-litter bucket. It's one way of dealing with food waste. Incidentally, the required "brown" (carbon-rich) materials can be things such as nut shells, dry pine needles and stale cereal or grains.

Store-bought fertilizer need not be pricey either. You could share a container with others. Or if you're a fan of free gift card programs, cash in some points for a Home Depot or Amazon.com card and use them to buy your cuke food. Maybe your potting soil, too.

Sun, seeds and water

Garden centers are full of pots that range from serviceable plastic to gorgeous ceramic. Ignore them. You can find inexpensive containers at thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales. Poster "Snowy29" rescues pots from church Easter flowers; the resulting windowsill herb crops have paid for themselves "many times over."

You might be able to get larger containers free from a deli or bodega. Lieberman scored all the 5-gallon buckets he needed that way, and he turned them into self-watering pots for about $4.35 apiece. This article and video show how.

Regular watering is essential, because container gardens dry out quickly — there's not much soil in there, after all. Without regular drinks, your plants will shrivel and die.

Certain crops need more sun than others. Tomatoes, one of the three favorites from the National Gardening Association survey (along with cucumbers and sweet peppers), generally need six hours of full sun. If your apartment doesn't get much light, focus on vegetables that need only partial sun, such as lettuces and spinach. Then find yourself an urban gardener with a southern exposure and propose a trade: mesclun for tomatoes.

Seeds versus seedlings is a continuing debate. Seeds are cheaper, and splitting a seed order with other gardeners gives you a nice variety. Walgreens recently offered five-for-a-buck seed packets, so watch those sales fliers. (And at the end of the season, watch the clearance racks. I found seed packets for 8 cents apiece last fall, also at Walgreens.)

Absolute beginners should consider easy crops such as carrots (the round ones are so cute!), radishes, mixed lettuces, basil, cucumbers and chard. If you're determined to grow tomatoes or peppers, buy one or two established plants. Novice gardeners who start from seed may wind up with leggy, frail plants instead of the hearty varieties from the garden center.

There is a learning curve, so don't try to do everything at once. In other words, don't set yourself up to fail.

Don't be surprised, however, if your success with Sweetie Baby romaine or Cameo basil gets you all fired up. Tending plants can be addictive — and so can the insalata caprese you serve to guests. You'll get bragging rights for having grown the tomatoes and basil on your own "balcony 40."

Plenty of resources

Never gardened before? That doesn't matter. If you can put together a bookcase from instructions, you can learn to tend plants — and there's tons of free info available.

A great place to start is the Cooperative Extension System, which operates offices in every U.S. state and territory. They're not just for large-scale farmers either; when I lived in Anchorage, the Alaska Cooperative Extension Service was an invaluable resource for folks who just wanted to put in a few zucchini plants. Read! "A Little Piece of Earth" and other container gardening books address the specific concerns of windowsill gardeners. Renee's Garden has a downloadable .pdf file about container gardening. The Cooperative Extension Service can be a good source of pamphlets, as can many garden centers.

Seed companies often provide how-to information on their Web sites and may answer questions from individual customers. Look for message boards operated by these companies, too, or by organizations such as the National Gardening Association.

Or, just ask other gardeners. See someone with a window box full of lettuce? Strike up a conversation. Apprentice yourself to someone in a community garden; the American Community Gardening Association has a searchable database. (You might also call the regional extension agent or the city parks department.)

A few more suggestions to turn your thumbs green:

• Watch your weight. Wet soil is heavy. Make sure you don't add too much weight to a balcony.


• Garden vertically. Build a trellis from scrap wood or rebar and teach those cukes or tomatoes to grow up instead of out. They'll get more sun and take up less space.


• Use hanging baskets. Put them where they'll get the most light. (And get used to ducking.)


• Rescue plants. If you see clearance prices on stressed seedlings, pick one up and repot it with a handful of compost. It won't cost much and you may luck out. A Smart Spending message board reader picked up wilting jalapeno pepper starts at Kmart for practically nothing. They came roaring back in his garden and produced more than he could use.


• Save seeds. If those heirloom tomatoes or peppers did well, hold on to a few seeds. Here's how to protect them for next year.

Save money today

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