Edible Domestic Plants

Vegetables

• Indoors or outside, you can grow your own vegetables. You can grow most of the produce you buy at the market. Try your hands at various types of lettuce, cucumber, green onions, leeks, squash, zucchini, cabbage and various peppers. Add broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant and spinach, and you will have a summer-long vegetable bonanza. Using raised beds, you can grow your own salad makings on patios, rooftops or small yards. The small space reduces the amount of work it takes to grow your garden, especially if you use Mel Bartholomew's "Square Foot Gardening" plan.

Roots and Tubers

• Root plants take more depth that some vegetables. Familiar edible roots include carrots, onions, potatoes, parsnips, turnips, radishes, beets and jicama. Plants like beets, radishes and onions can do double duty in harvesting the tops for your salad while letting the roots grow until they are large enough to harvest.

Legumes

• Legumes such as green beans, bush beans, pintos, green peas, snow peas and limas grow easily and can flourish in small areas because the plants will grow up on framework. Many beans and peas can easily, so you can store the excess you don't eat as it ripens for later in the year when your garden lies dormant.

Fruit

• Fruits like tomatoes, bananas and strawberries cultivate well indoors and outside. Most require plenty of sun and regular watering. If you put the pots on rollers, you can grow them outside until the temperatures heat up and then move them indoors where they will continue to produce despite the heat. Trees like lemons, limes, kumquats and oranges have dwarf varieties for indoor gardening. Outdoors your orchard can include cherries, apples, peaches, pears, figs, oranges, satsumas, persimmons, avocadoes and various kinds of berries. Choose self-pollinating varieties if your space is limited and you will plant only one of each type.

Herbs

• Many herbs will grow well on the windowsill, making it easy to harvest as needed for truly fresh herbs. Dill, mints, rosemary, basil, thyme, chives, parsley and oregano thrive indoors. Mint varieties such as spearmint, curly mint, peppermint and pineapple mint provide great flavor for your food and discourage rodents and other pests. Plant the mints around the base of your home to keep unwanted guests out and provide pretty ground cover. Harvest the leaves for your salad as well as for teas and cooking.