Growing spaces: terrace

One plant on a sill supplies a household. Crops for two years if you keep picking.

A monsoon climber that will roof a terrace in eight weeks if you give it a frame.

Drought-hardy bean of the west — fixes nitrogen and crops where little else will.

A pot by an open window does more for a summer evening than any air freshener.

Cut-and-come-again greens for a kitchen garden — ready in six weeks from a shallow trough.

Sow thickly in a wide tray and cut the whole crop at three weeks — the fastest green there is.

A clump of scented grass that mosquitoes avoid and tea drinkers cannot do without.

Needs space, sun and a lot of feeding, and gives back a bunch plus leaves for cooking.

A dryland shrub grown for its root; it resents wet feet more than it resents heat.

A climber that will take over a boundary wall given a chance. Grow from a stem cutting pushed into moist soil.