You can garden almost anywhere. Use your imagination. Any thing can be used as long as it has good drainage holes in the bottom. I start most my seeds in pudding containers. Inside the house.
Window boxes are great for herbs.
Seeds like tomatoes and peppers, cucumbers and pumpkins, as well as many flowers, can be started in a sunny window or under inexpensive fluorescent lights in the basement. This way children can enjoy gardening, even on rainy days. Seeds can be started for transplanting from about March on depending on the plants. May. Most transplants or seedlings can be planted outside after the last frost, some where around the beginning of June. You can put them in sooner but you must be willing to protect them from frost, by covering them on cool evenings.