You don't need land. You need light, a container, dirt and water. A rowhome windowsill, a bucket on a back step, a fire escape, a shared plot down the block — people in this region have fed themselves from all of them. This page tells you exactly what to plant, when to plant it here, and how to do it for almost no money.
Not everything is worth growing. Some crops save you real money; others are a hobby. If the goal is your grocery bill, grow the top row.
| Worth it | Why | Skip (if money is the point) | Why not |
|---|---|---|---|
| Herbs — basil, parsley, cilantro, mint, chives, oregano | The single highest return in gardening. A $3 packet replaces years of $3 plastic clamshells. | Corn | Needs a big block to pollinate; costs pennies at any farm stand. |
| Salad greens & spinach | Expensive to buy, fast to grow, cut-and-come-again for months. | Potatoes | Cheap by the 10 lb bag; takes a lot of space for the payoff. |
| Tomatoes | One healthy plant can produce 10–20+ lb. Homegrown genuinely tastes different. | Onions & garlic (for savings) | Very cheap to buy — though garlic is nearly effortless if you have the space. |
| Hot & sweet peppers | Costly at the store, thrive in pots, and dry or freeze beautifully. | Wheat & grains | Not realistic at household scale. |
| Green onions | Regrow from the scrap ends of ones you already bought. Free, forever. | Melons & pumpkins | Enormous sprawl for one or two fruits. |
| Cherry tomatoes, bush beans, zucchini | Absurdly productive per square foot. One zucchini plant will overwhelm you. | Head cabbage & cauliflower | Long season, pest magnets, and dirt cheap to buy. |
| Sprouts & microgreens | Indoors, year-round, 5–10 days start to harvest, no sun needed for sprouts. | Asparagus & artichoke | Excellent crops — but 2–3 years before your first real harvest. |
Garden centers want you to spend $200 before you plant a seed. You don't have to spend anything close to that.
5-gallon buckets — ask any bakery, deli, restaurant or hardware store; they throw them out constantly. Also: cat-litter tubs, storage totes, coffee cans, takeout containers for seedlings, and cut-down milk jugs. Drill or punch drainage holes in the bottom of every one — this is the #1 container-garden killer.
Bagged potting mix is the one thing worth buying — garden dirt compacts into concrete in a pot. Buy the big bag; the small bag is priced per ounce like perfume. Stretch it by mixing 50/50 with finished compost.
Many cities and counties give away finished compost or leaf mulch free to residents in spring — check your public works or sanitation department. Coffee shops give away used grounds by the bucket.
Seed libraries at public libraries — yes, really: take seeds free, return some at the end of the season. Also seed swaps, neighbors, and the seeds inside the peppers and tomatoes you already bought.
Green onion ends, celery bottoms, romaine hearts, garlic cloves that sprouted, ginger that sprouted, and potato eyes all regrow. So does basil — a supermarket sprig in a glass of water roots in about a week.
Hardware stores and even dollar stores sell seed packets and starter plants in spring. Late spring, garden centers mark down leggy leftovers hard — those plants are usually fine and half price or less.
More gardens fail from not enough sun than from any other cause. Spend one day figuring this out and you'll save a whole season.
On any clear day, check your window, step, yard or fire escape at 9am, noon, 3pm and 6pm and note whether that spot is in direct sun. Add up the hours.
South-facing gets the most light all day. West-facing gets hot afternoon sun. East-facing gets gentle morning sun — great for greens. North-facing gets the least.
We're in USDA zone 7 (roughly 7a–7b). Average last spring frost in central Philadelphia is around April 20; average first fall frost is around October 15 — about 167 frost-free days. Outlying and higher areas run one to two weeks later in spring. South Jersey, Delaware and the Maryland shore run similar to slightly earlier.
| Month | What to do |
|---|---|
| January | Plan and order seeds while everything's in stock. Grow sprouts and microgreens indoors. Clean and disinfect pots. |
| February | Around Feb 21: start tomatoes, peppers and eggplant indoors under light. Also start broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce indoors. |
| March | Around Mar 2: plant onions, potatoes and peas outside. Around Mar 20: direct-sow spinach, lettuce, radishes, kale and other cool-season greens if the ground is workable. |
| April | Around Apr 11: transplant your cole crops (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower) and lettuce outside. Keep sowing greens and radishes every two weeks. Around Apr 20 the frost risk passes. Around Apr 27: transplant tomatoes, peppers and eggplant — after the last frost. |
| May | Around May 1, once soil hits 60°F: direct-sow beans, corn, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, melons and pumpkins. Plant basil now — it hates cold. Mulch everything. |
| June | Peak growth. Water deeply and consistently. Stake and tie tomatoes. Harvest greens before they bolt in the heat. Sow another round of beans. |
| July | Harvest heavily — the more you pick beans, zucchini and cucumbers, the more they produce. Water daily in containers. Late July: start fall broccoli, cabbage and kale seedlings. |
| August | Peak tomatoes and peppers — this is preserving season. Direct-sow fall crops: spinach, lettuce, radishes, turnips, carrots. Pull anything finished and replant the space. |
| September | Fall greens thrive in cooling weather. Keep harvesting. Plant garlic cloves late in the month through October for next summer's harvest. |
| October | First frost around Oct 15. Cover greens with a sheet or row cover to keep them going for weeks longer. Harvest green tomatoes before frost — they'll ripen indoors. Bring dwarf citrus and tender herbs inside. |
| November | Plant garlic if you haven't. Mulch beds heavily. Kale, collards and spinach get sweeter after frost — keep picking. Move indoors for winter herbs. |
| December | Rest. Grow sprouts and microgreens on the counter. Review what worked, save seed catalogs, plan next year. |
Check your own ZIP's frost dates — they shift by a week or two even within the metro area. Look up your frost dates → · Penn State Master Gardeners, Philadelphia County →
Herbs (basil, mint, parsley, chives, oregano), green onions regrown from scraps in a glass of water, leaf lettuce and microgreens. Shallow roots, quick harvest, happy with 4+ hours of light.
Sprouts (mung, lentil, alfalfa, broccoli) in a jar with a mesh lid: rinse twice a day, eat in 5 days, no light required. Microgreens in a shallow tray of soil: 7–14 days. The fastest food on earth.
One plant per 5-gallon bucket: tomato (choose a determinate/bush variety), pepper, eggplant. Or a bucket of bush beans, lettuce, or radishes. Add a strawberry hanging pot.
A 4×4 raised bed grows a startling amount: tomatoes, peppers, bush beans, zucchini, cucumbers on a trellis, and greens tucked underneath. Add garlic in fall — it needs almost no attention.
Full-size gardening for a small annual fee, plus neighbors who'll teach you. This is the best option in the city if you can get one. How to find a plot →
Fruit trees (dwarf apple, pear, fig — figs do very well in Philadelphia), berry bushes (raspberry, blackberry, blueberry), rhubarb, asparagus, and perennial herbs like thyme, oregano, sage and mint.
The whole point is food that isn't covered in chemicals. Almost everything can be handled without them.
Clusters of tiny green or black bugs on new growth. Blast them off with a hose, or spray a squirt of plain dish soap in a quart of water. Ladybugs eat them for you.
Huge green caterpillars that strip a plant overnight. Pick them off by hand in the evening. If you see one covered in white rice-like sacs, leave it — parasitic wasps are killing it and will spread.
Ragged holes overnight. A shallow dish of beer sunk to soil level, crushed eggshells around stems, or a flashlight hunt after dark.
The real urban pest. Netting, hardware cloth over seedlings, or a cheap chicken-wire cage. Squirrels take one bite of a tomato and leave it — harvest slightly early and ripen indoors.
Check the undersides of leaves and crush the small bronze egg clusters. Floating row cover over young plants until they flower stops them entirely.
White dust on squash and cucumber leaves in humid August. Water the soil, not the leaves; space plants for airflow; remove affected leaves. A milk-and-water spray (1:4) helps.
See seed sources in the directory →
Many hardware and garden stores sell young fruit trees and vegetable starts ready to plant. Choose a good one:
Philadelphia has a deep community-garden tradition. A plot costs little or nothing, comes with tools, water and neighbors who know what they're doing.
Growing takes a season. Eating cheaply starts today.
Freezing, canning, drying, fermenting and root storage — how to make August's glut last until March.
Salvage grocers, bulk produce, Amish bulk bins and flea markets across PA, NJ, DE and MD.
Search a health goal — blood pressure, blood sugar, energy, sleep — and see which real foods help.