Given the right kind of pot and care, you can grow the juiciest tomatoes you've ever eaten – in a pot on your apartment balcony! But why stop at tomatoes? Why not grow basil that is so beautiful, it's practically a crime to eat it? Green leafy vegetables like Spinach are also very easy to grow – and super healthy to boot.

A huge advantage of home grown tomatoes or any other vegetable is that you can pick the right variety for your purpose – salads, sauces, cooking etc. There are a whole lot of varieties available from institutes like Pusa Research Institute that will give good yields. Home gardeners typically share the seeds also.

Here are some pointers to help you start off with a bang!

To succeed with tomatoes in a pot, choose a pot that is at least 18 inches tall (height of a pot is more important to tomatoes than volume). To maximize the fruit your tomatoes produce, be consistent with watering and generous with compost or organic manure. Place the pot where it gets at least half a day of sun.

You could also try your hand at growing cucumbers, bottle gourds, okra & radish. Cucumber creepers are compact, can be grown easily in a 5-gallon container and trained to grow on a 3-foot trellis. Regular picking will help increase your harvest.

Herbs are another favourite for container gardeners. Basil, lemon grass, oregano, ajwain, Aloe Vera, thyme & chives are easy to grow in a small pot or window box in full sun.

Short on space and want only one pot? Use it for a strawberry plant! Commercially grown strawberries are laden with chemical pesticides, and homegrown varieties are sweeter, with a more intense flavor. A 12-inch glazed pot will do just fine.

I started out with my home garden just last winter, and I have successfully (and very happily) grown spring onions, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, methi and mustard. Now with the summer setting in, I have moved on with a few varieties of beans, tomatoes, bottle gourd, bhindi, brinjal, bitter gourd. Let’s see how I fare this summer! It is a little difficult to care for plants in summer – to manage to give them proper sunlight and also to save them from too much heat, but hopefully, we’ll get by.

Here are some pics from the terrace organic garden last winter