I've put a lot of work into my homestead at Lakeview Manor, and I've decided that for this playthrough I'm going to sorta kinda play like it's real life. If I'm hanging around the house, for example, the only items in my inventory should be the clothes I'm wearing and items related related to whatever I'm doing at the time. Whenever I'm going to leave, I poke in my cupboards and wardrobes (specific locations for specific categories, natch), take a handful of items I think I'll need, a few extra potions and snacks "just in case", and I'll craft/brew/etc whatever I don't have on hand. Occasionally I'll probably sell the majority of the unused items (all my gold went into the homestead, enchanting junk and selling it off is my main source of income right now). To that end, I'd like some recommendations for what I should plant in my little garden outside. Which plants yield ingredients for potions and other concoctions that are super useful and/or worth quite a bit of gold? It has 11 available spots. I currently have Blisterwort, Bleeding Crown, Namira's Rot, Creep Cluster, Canis Root, Deathbell, Dragon's Tongue, Juniper, Tundra Cotton and Imp Stool (I'm trying not to be juvenile here, but that one sounds so wrong!). Anyway, any input is welcome, thanks!

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Doc Prox

imp stool + canis root = paralyze poison, very good, almost too good

This is how I like to play too, I don't have any alchemy advice but I do recommend purchasing vigilance. Useless as a follower for quests but cool to keep at home and take for walks/hunts.

I had one character who filled the conservatory with pretty flowers. No concern over potion use, I just wanted my Orc to be able to wander around a pretty garden.

IIRC, Scaly Pholiata (sorry, I have no idea how to spell that. It's the mushrooms you find on the birch trees in the Rift) and Wisp Wrappings make a Fortify Carry Weight potion. Very useful. Grow more Scaly Pholiata, the Wisp Wrappings, well, it'd make an interesting self-made quest.

If I build a second homestead, it will be my "eye candy" house, and I will definitely do a flower garden. I actually have a flower garden going on in Plants vs Zombies on my iPod, the main section of my Zen Garden is half-full of magnolias, and I'm 3 short of having the rest of it taken up by sunflowers (fortunately I have over 5 million gold, so I buy new plants every day... I'll get there!)

You could grow Glowing Mushroom, Blue Mountain Flower and Swamp Fungal Pod.
Combine those three and get an amazing potion...

Also Jazbay and Red Mountain Flower.
Combine with Moon Sugar and you get Super ArchMage Tonic.

Plus, there are Snowberries and Thistle Branch.
Combine with Mudcrab Chitin to create the most amazing Potion of Resistance.
(Very useful if battling Dragons.)

These three are SERIOUS potions...
I'm surprised to never encounter anyone brewing them but me.

Thanks, I had most of that stuff, I have to get some Swamp Fungal Pod and Moon Sugar, but that third potion, Jeebus! It's stuff like that that makes me wish you could name potions the way you name enchanted items.

Cabbage.

Useful as a snack (replenishes your health) and you can sell it to farmers to make money!

unfortunately only one of these items is plantable, so it's not all that helpful to the subject at hand, but I just combined Briar Heart, Tundra Cotton and Vampire Dust and got "Blocking absorbs 25% more damage for 60 seconds. Magicka is increased by 25 points for 60 seconds. Restore 39 points of Magicka." sweet!

add mora tapinella and you have a paralysis and lingering damage health, great for planting on someone when pick pocketing. It's how I assasinate most targets.

Honestly though, it really depends on how what your character does in the world.

Two handed weapons? Dragons Tongue is a great.

Magical resistance? Snowberrys are a must.

No healing spells? Wheat is terrific.

Do some bit of research if you don't mind alchemy spoilers the uesp.com or do some investigation of alchemical properties in game and discover what you like to make, then grow it if possible.

Of course if all you want to do is create a home, grow cabbages, wheat, potatoes and leeks and whatever else you can use to make food, then go hunting and foraging for other stuff, and then head to the market in Whiterun to pickup the rest of the necessaties. I like the home in Morthal because you have a hatchery, essentially put a fish in there than your area will always have a few.

For my assassin character I always grew canis root, imp stool and mora tapinella. My favorite pocket drop poison. Great for an archer as well or for a warrior I guess too.

Lol, beat me to it.

Another good one for elemental protection is snowberries, hawk beak and any resist fire ingredient; I usually use dragon's tongue.

can you plant hawk beak?

No sorry, forgot you were looking for plantable items when I posted that. Hawk beak is tough to come by.

No, but that is easily hunted for at Lakeview Manor as one flies around (but you need to be away from the cell for about 48 hours for it to respawn properly I think), plus in there are several flying around in the city of Solitude plus around the Solitude docks there are even more. Easily can rack up about 10 if you visit there.

If you have chain lightning, oh it makes it too easy sometimes inside the city.

I didn't even know those birds were huntable, I thought they were just background animation, thanks for the tip! now I can include a trip to Solitude whenever I want to fill up soul gems, and get a useful ingredient in the process, killing two birds with one... bird... wait, wouldn't that be killing three birds with one arrow? um...

Im surprised no one said wheat. That along with a giants toe makes an awesome fortify health potion. If you dont need the potion for health you can sell them for a sizable profit.

They aren't soul trappable iirc...

They're just actors flying about that turn into lootable corpses when you hit them... with anything.

I hear the master illusion spell for calm literally kills all of them in one go...