There is something about growing a plant—the simple act of planting a seed, watering it and watching the plant turn into something beautiful, useful and or edible—that makes folks feel good. For many of us growing things is almost a religious experience, as it brings us close to Nature as we are doing something we love. Then enjoying the fruits of our labor is wonderful, as often times, we consume what we grew. We wind up with beautiful flowers and delicious fruits and veggies. Our surroundings are green and they smell great too. Best of all, you don’t need a lot of space, or even any land.

Now anyone can enjoy growing, with or without land! How? By growing organically in a windowsill garden and in future articles I’m going to show you how. I’ll give you all the information you need and tell you how to get started for around $25, with no big outlay for training manuals or fancy tools.

That’s it and it’s easy too! But what about that word I used: organic? What does that mean? Well, organic is simply growing naturally, without chemical fertilizers or poisonous pest controls. Now the second part is pretty easy inside, because the walls provide shelter away from most plant pests, except maybe the family cat. Growing in pots, on the other hand, plants do need some special need some help. We avoid chemical fertilizers with just a little bit extra work. But you might wonder what kind of nut wants to grow organically. What’s a few chemicals? Well, avoiding chemicals is healthy for you, your family and the planet. In fact, if you buy fruit and vegetables in the supermarket you are getting a lot more than you expect in the form of chemical pesticides, fertilizers, hormones and preservatives. Maybe the plants are even genetically engineered. All this just isn’t good for us. What you grow in your home is healthy, and imagine picking supper in your kitchen or grabbing a snack from the window.

The windowsill garden can be just about any size you desire. It can be a single box in the kitchen or entire houseful of planter boxes full of lovely things growing: a spot of color or a jungle. You can choose to grow anything that suits your fancy—ornamental flowers, vegetables, edible flowers, or my favorite, fresh culinary herbs. Given the right conditions, you could even grow a tropical forest or landscape a favorite room with desert plants. You will get all the information you will need to do any of these and more in the following articles, so over the next several weeks, keep coming back.

Growing indoors is becoming popular everywhere. Even big business is on this band wagon, integrating green space into their buildings, flowers and water gardens to clean the air, brighten the space and make employees feel relaxed and peaceful. Next time you walk around your downtown area, take a real good look at how many plants and even trees are happily growing inside big office buildings and hotels. They find that is raises productivity and, therefore, saves more money than it costs. The fact is that people are spending more and more time at home remodeling and creating an environment that is pleasing and welcoming for family and friends.

It’s great to walk into a warm, eye-pleasing home, and for many of us that includes living things—plants, pets (animals), tropical fish or birds and now for many would-be gardeners, “edible crops.” People are cooking and entertaining at home now more than ever. It is good for the soul and the body. Plants brighten the environment and freshen the air, adding oxygen and absorbing contaminants. In Florida they are testing water treatment using water lilies and in California using wild horseradish. Take a look at any home magazine, Architectural Home, New Home Living, Organic Style, Country Living, Organic Family Magazine and you will see that over ninety percent of the photographs include living things—plants—in our homes. We spend as much as three-quarters of our time in our homes and now with windowsill organic gardening, we can make our living spaces even more beautiful—and have fun, too.

Come back next week and see what Jay has in store for you.May all that you grow bring as much pleasure to your friends and family as it has to me.

Jay North is a pioneer and internationally recognized expert in the organic gardening/farming industries; for all of your organic gardening needs please see Jay’s books page at www.GoingOrganic.com