I think if you had some small shelves that are about as tall as the window sill you could grow plenty. If the shelf ended about 10 inches from the sill the plant would be in the sunshine most of the bright part of the day (assuming its planted in a 10 inch tall pot). You would want lights overhead of the plants during the evening when winter days are the shortest. Plenty of plants will survive without the lights but they will barely grow and probably won't bloom and fruit during the shorter days. You could use regular adjustable floor lamps with the bulbs set within a foot of the top of the plants (the closer the better) and either use grow bulbs or fluorescents. Lighting is tricky. People seriously growing under lights use big bulky expensive lamps that won't work well in a home-ey sunroom if you want to also use it as a reading/sitting room. I would at least start out with something simple and expand from there as your experience grows. You'll probably have better luck growing a cherry tomato in a pot outdoors in the summer and then bring it indoors for the winter and toss it out when it goes down hill - it may last all season but they usually get disease or insects before March. I can never get regular tomatoes to ripen when I bring them inside but cherry tom's do fine. Most of the herbs should do fine except the rosemary - in my experience it hates living indoors. Garlic is a seasonal plant that you plant at one point in the year and then harvest half a year later. It is not something that you can harvest off of all year long (there will be a plant but there won't be a bulb). Garlic chives should do fine in a pot indoors though and the flavor is similar. Asparagus will be tricky since the plants get 6 feet tall and about 4 feet wide and they pretty much like full blazing sun - I move them to the outside plant list. Carrots might work but they take more than one season to size up for me. You could grow seedlings all winter that you could then plant outdoors in the spring. Orange trees and other citrus would work and most will stay small when grown outside of the tropics. They can get buggy but if you move them back outdoors in the summer you may not have a problem. Most citrus bloom during the winter or very early spring and then it take all year for the fruit to form and ripen - making them a great winter time crop when no other fruit ready to harvest. They don't need high heat (I keep mine just above freezing!) but they do like higher humidity than what most people have in their homes.

I've been considering the possibility of a usable "sun room" (15 x 20) for some time myself. The overhang I figured was ~ 4' - 4.5'. One issue holding me back is the question of how the space can be made to be like the rest of the house in terms of temperature. The roof would most likely be metal standing seam with a slight pitch and be heavily insulated (> R30). All this is driven by the architecture of the existing house. Another consideration would be shading the roof with solar panels mounted on top with a 6" air gap. After visiting other homes in CA with flat built up roofs + insulation underneath, I'm not sure how much heat gain I would be able to economically eliminate. In addition, the walls would need to be significantly insulated (> R30) and sealed. The floor would be interesting in my situation as the space would be over existing concrete slab. Most likely that would reuire a floating floor over insulation with perhaps underfloor heating. The idea is to avoid adding HVAC for that area while gaining a comfortable and usable space. At that point though, the space would become an addition and be subject to city planning, inspections and an increase in taxes.

If it is just a sunroom, it must have lots of windows, so maybe you could live with it and use lots of light matted artwork. I had much more of it than just a sunporch, and I had to paint it. I could not live with the knotty pine walls. They were so depressing: I felt like I was living in a cave because we have heavy shade. The only place I find dark pine attractive is on the floor. I have had it in several homes, and I painted it every time and never regretted it.

Backing up would only give you pictures of shrubs as there are tall ones for privacy which will also be going. Inside The "Bench" has been used for storing books to the window and beyond in removable bookcases. Short version of long story. Have had several people look at replacing but each suggested enlarging openings a little which I wanted to do. Husband wanted them bricked up with glass blocks. Rather than upset him further I put my plans on hold so yes I am a tire kicker. Now that he is in hospice and at a nursing home I am planning on the future with what I want. Hospice is generally for six months but can be extended for those that have never worked with them. Although a complete wall of windows would be nice reality and my love of plants tells me that a partial wall would be best. In the attic this section was roofed over later than the rest because it only has 12 inch joists rather than the 16's in the rest of the house. Floor to ceiling would probably need better suspension than it currently has so have been looking at various windows. The rest of the house in the main rooms have that same type of window flanking the old plate glass picture windows. Am thinking of something similar except for broken by frames for the center portion. The windows I have looked at all have problems of not allowing full air access when open. Our breezes for most of the day come from the South then switch to the East during the night. A window at the very top that would open would need to be able to be opened remotely. More of the neighborhood are going with modern appearance additions so staying with the age of the house is not that much of a consideration.