indoor plants (veggie or herbs prefered, but any will do)

i just moved to a studio in chicago and i was wondering if i could grow any veggie or herb plants on the windowsill. there is no airconditioning and plenty of very slightly shaded light. i think tomatoes would grow, but i don't know what else. the other thing is my cat. as beuatiful as he is, he decimated my minuture rose bush in my last appt. i think perhaps he's mellowed out since then. so nothing poisonous, though veggies would be fine. right? pretty much any plant (veggie or not) i could keep alive would give me pride.

please help

carola

Lettuce might be a good option carola. I don't know what zone you are in and although they sound a little dull, lettuce are pretty and colourful and do well in window boxes. I usually grow mixed seed which includes some gormet types with great colour combinations and different shaped leaves. I use them as a cut and come again crop, picking the leaves as soon as they have made six inches or so - even in Ireland they produce all summer long and well into the winter when grown in the greenhouse.
Strawberries are another option but they do need a good deal of sunlight to ripen properly and taste sweet. Wild strawaberries don't need quite so much light and will do well in part shade. They are really delicious but fiddly to pick. I grow strawberries in window boxes with a little mint called Satureja douglasii or Indian mint. If you ever come across this herb do get it. it's a small leaved creeping plant which trails down over the boxes and has pretty purple flowers. Its very forgiving too and won't mind you going away for the weekend or forgetting to water it.The Indian mint is really nice in a glass of Pimms - with the strawberries. :-))
Rosie

I think lettuce/salad greens would be a great idea, especially since they don't like the extreme heat of midsummer. make sure that anything you plant has good container soil and drainage.

herbs are commonly grown indoors, and you could ask the herb forum about specifics. I'm trying them under grow lights and having some difficulties, but I'm going to try some different things. With your sunny window, though, you should be in great shape.

some vegetables are easier grown from transplants than seed. currently, you should be able to get transplants for cold weather crops such as broccoli, cabbage, etc. maybe you'll have more luck up the road from me in chicago, but for some reason, no greenhouses in this city have fall vegetable transplants for sale. hoosiers typically do corn and tomatoes during the summer, i guess - no fall stuff. green beans are super easy to grow from seed. how cute would it be to have green beans growing in your window! or maybe some snow peas for your salad, if you can hook up some string or something for them to climb.

you'd probably want to avoid stuff that needs pollinated - like squash and cucumbers. squash plants generally get too giant for an area like that anyway.

you can do potatoes in containers, but with the amount of compost you need to put in it, bugs might be an issue.

don't forget to grow some catgrass and catnip for your kitty and leave a sunny spot for napping. :o) as far as keeping him out of the other plants, cats will pretty much do what they want to do. maybe you could set up some kind of see-through fabric barrier to keep him out? fabric is used for pest control in outdoor gardening, so i'm sure you could use it in this situation as well.

stick around and let us know what your results are. we're always happy to see and hear about other people's gardening adventures. happy gardening!

the attached picture was taken of my grow-light herb garden about a week after I planted it from overgrown, two-for-one transplants. sadly, only a few of them are still hanging in there, but I'll get it figured out!

Sorry to be off topic, but Indy_v those lights are not only small, they are really far away from the plants. I'd think you'd have a lot better luck if you drop the lights down to a few inches above the plants. I have one of those grow stick lights and it will only support a couple of low light house plants that nearly touch it.

Bodangy, I had great luck growing Cilantro in my kitchen window.. Munched on it for months! Good luck!

Thanks for the advice, ZZs. I'm always happy to learn from other people.

I did actually drop them down further after the picture was taken. And I put seedlings right up under there. I bought a third light that I'm going to put up when I get a chance to restart this stuff - and I'll do some research to see if I need to replace the setup with higher-watt lights. *sigh* so much to do.

my seed-starting efforts haven't gone so well, even though I followed the instructions to sterilize the potting soil in the oven this last time. If anyone would like to recommend their favorite commercial seed-starting medium, that would be helpful to me - and probably to carola, too, if she decides to go that route.

bodangy, I'm in Savannah, GA and I used to have an apartment with north facing windows, so lots of light but not much direct sunlight. Rosemary did well for me, but it may need more light than you're describing. I tried thyme, and it grew, but my cat LOVED it and would mow it down to a nubbin. Kitty had lovely sweet breath, but I never got any thyme! I had an avocado plant that finally got too big for my space and I had to give that away. The things that absolutely thrived for me were African violets. In Chicago you may need to protect them from the winter cold that seeps through the window panes, but they are lovely things, and my cats never bothered them. Just a few thoughts for your consideration — good luck with your window garden!