In my search for seeds and seedlings online (because nothing was available locally), I came across 2 companies that had excellent ratings and variety:

Burpee had the most robust and interesting varieties of herbs, vegetables and flowers; and I like the company’s storied history. Reasonably priced as well. They also deliver seedlings as well as seeds and sell excellent seed starting systems:

http://www.burpee.com/

Seeds of Change is an good certified organic option:

http://www.seedsofchange.com/

You can grow anything but root vegetables.

Here is a list of plants we have grown in windowfarms using supplemental lighting from CFL bulbs:

Fruiting Plants
Okra, cherry tomatoes, scallop squash, small cucumbers, beans, strawberries, peppers, peas, japanese eggplant.

Leafy Greens
Arugula, bok choy, brocolli rabe, kale, chard, radicchio, watercress, chives, various microgreens, and many varieties of lettuce.

Herbs
Rosemary, cilantro, basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, mint, and sage.

Edible Flowers
Nasturtium, violets, and marigolds.

We have had varying degrees of success with each depending on the particular microclimate of the window, the amount of natural sunlight available, the drip rate, the type of nutrients, our ability to fight pests, the source of the seeds, and the particular variety of each species.

You can actually grow some pretty big, productive plants even though the containers are small because plants growing in hydroponic systems grow differently from dirt plants. Instead of growing large long roots that have to grow far from the plant to find new water and nutrients in the soil, plants grow more compact rootballs that grow a lot of root hairs for more surface area to absorb more of the water and nutrients you are sending directly to the roots.

Check out how big and healthy some of the plants in this early system were.

Many more varieties of plants are certainly possible but we need your help testing what works because we can only grow so much ourselves. We need you to try out different plants and techniques and share your knowledge about what works. The goal is to get the most nutrients and the most variety for the carbon footprint of the systems.

As we refine the website, we will create ways that you can track and share your results. In the meantime, please focus on getting your system ready and working well and in the meantime, just please be sure to make posts and tag them well. We strongly encourage new users to start with the simple 3-plant airlift system (there are some chronic problems with the reservoir system so we are moving away from it).

Everyone knows mint grows like a weed. Well, wait until you put it in a hydroponic system. This plant fills the whole surrounding area with a minty fresh smell.

Golden cherry tomatoes in the Eyebeam windowfarm. These were eaten within the 1st hour of Eyebeam's annual benefit!!

Three varieties of cherry tomatoes have born fruit.

Peppers and strawberries were very flavorful but a little smaller than you see at the grocery store.

At this time of year, the kale, lettuce, and chards are not growing rapidly. They do better in the spring, winter and fall, liking the chill air right inside the window.

The bok choi was luscious !!! That is . . .until it got hit with some aphids and we had to ditch it. Chives are growing too big and starting to go to seed so we need to harvest them and have some eggs!

Edible violas in the Eyebeam windowfarm. I like them in an arugula salad with spicy marinated grilled eggplant and goat cheese.

All of the plants in the Eyebeam windowfarm are edible, even the flowers. We have grown edible violas, marigolds, and nasturtium.

Moveable hanging windowfarm we made for demos

These plants were all started from seed in February. The lettuce loved the cool early spring. Look at how bushy that blackseeded simpson got (mid left). There are also cucumber (the yellow flowers at top left), okra (maple-looking leaves mid right) , green beans (top right) kale (bottom right) and cherry tomatoes (bottom left), jalepenos, and Japanese Eggplant (bottom right big leaves) in this system. The cherry tomatoes,  jalepenos, and okra are just now ripe in early August. Beans keep coming- super tasty, crunchy, and sweet. The lettuce went to seed and started tasting better about after about 2 months of churning out georgeous new leaves constantly when we picked them.  Aphids and a weekend when I left the pump off (OOPS!) killed the eggplant. The cucumbers were a real mystery. Like Marilyn and James Dean, they died a young tragic death after a short, but full life. Read their sad story here. Someone else please try cucumbers!