Besides mint which I am pretty sure I could grow in my cupboard, I am interested in growing things like basil and coriander year round. I understand that coriander especially is a little whiney baby at the best of times, and I need my coriander to withstand days on end of overcast skies and very cold temperatures overnight.
I'd consider growing culantro/sawtooth coriander as an alternative to common coriander.
Depending on what migrant populations you have in your region you should be able to find this if you go looking where SE Asian grocers or markets are, same for Mexican grocers or markets. It actually grows better in partial shade. Just make sure that you know how to identify when it's bolting and remove those stems as they emerge. Culantro is also a short-lived perennial so that's kinda neat because you aren't bound to a growing season with it.
I would also consider kratky hydroponics for small scale gardening on a windowsill.
Idk how basil will go because it sounds like you aren't getting much light. If you aren't getting enough light you might want to consider investing in some grow lights. You don't need much space to have a small set up - people often use cheap garage shelving or those wire shelving units. You can also use floating shelves to make something that is more aesthetically appealing like this set up:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Hydroponics/comments/ulvrip/kitchen_lettuce_shelves/
Basil is easy to propagate so you can effectively have perpetual basil:
https://youtube.com/shorts/HUnW-9CGj0c
There are more in-depth guides for how to do this that are out there too.
I second Kratky. Pretty much any container will work so all you need to worry about is light!
Awesome, thanks for the tips. I get a lot of light when it's sunny, but living in Scotland at the bottom of a hill I can go five full days in a row with constant cloud cover sometimes, so I could definitely do with some grow lights. The set up in the post you linked looks great.
The best solution I have been able to find is these ratchet grow mats off Amazon which are too wide to find my windowsill anyway, or these electric incubators which are too small for anything larger than a sapling. Do I just have to give up and place something like an AeroGarden on another free counter? I don't like this idea either, because I need to 1) import this thing from the US and 2) I think it makes me dependent on their seedpods to get started every time?
I just wanna grow
There are knockoff aero gardens out there. And you don't have to use their seed pods. I got one as a gift awhile back and I make my own pods with coco coir.
That's really helpful to know.