This does not answer the question as it violates the "in small pots" requirement. It is being posted as hopefully useful but too long for a comment
The herb idea is great. You can also try tomatoes as they - being a rapidly growing vine - are easy to shape into anything that absorbs the sunlight. Just be sure to have enough nitrogen in the soil.
It's all about where is sun being shined. <outside the equator and polar regions> in summer it's almost vertical, in winter it's almost horizontal.
As a sidenote, here's a quote from a local gardening newspaper**:
Tomatoes and cucumbers have the ability to produce additional roots. So if observing [stunted growth*] additional soil can be deposited onto the bottom of the stem to provoke that.
I consider to grow herbs from seeds in small pots
Germination is unaffected but stunted growth is possible if not careful. And dangerous.
* - the text names a non-fatal illness but I am not aquainted with it and fail to even translate the name to English
** - I do not endorse it as I've never observed the process to completion. However a gardening newspaper sounds credible