Windowsill gardening

A large outdoor area is not necessary for enjoying some homegrown goods. As long as you have a sunny windowsill you can grow many things around your house. Windowsill gardens are a great space-saving option for home gardeners who don’t have a large outdoor gardening space, and can easily be achieved in smaller residences like apartments.

Getting creative with window boxes allows you to grow a range of vegetables and herbs with ease, while making the ingredients accessible for meals.

Vegetables such as baby beetroot, radish, salads, and many types of herbs as well as some edible flowers and microgreens for garnishes are suitable for growing.

Give a box a theme and use plants to help you fulfil it, for example a cocktail box made with rosemary for a gin cocktail, edible flowers for decorations or basil for infusions.

Ideas

The pizza box

A pizza window box can be created using anything you like as pizza toppings. A trailing tomato plant spilling over the side can look attractive also. This can be paired with herbs such as basil and another classic such as rocket.

The dessert box

Fill your window box with cascading strawberry plants, planted with other dessert favourites such as mints. There are so many mint varieties that can work well in drinks or as a dessert syrup. Try chocolate mint, pineapple mint or peppermint for something fun. Growing mint in a window box is ideal as they generally can become sprawling if left to grow in a flower bed.

The cocktail box

Everyone loves the idea of having fresh garnishes with a cooling cocktail in the summer. Growing herbs and edible flowers for picking and sipping is becoming more desirable. Growing things like scented geranium for infusions, or rosemary for dressing a cocktail is a fun way to garden and the plants can be bought so the full effect of the window box can be enjoyed immediately. They also make great gifts for friends.

Ideas for autumn and winter

For an autumn winter selection, herbs can make a good choice. Evergreen perennial herbs such as oregano, thyme and rosemary work well as indoor winter crops. They won’t grow much during the winter, but they will provide harvestable leaves and they will look and smell great!

Oregano and rosemary grow too large for most windowsills, so choose young plants and then you can plant them out in the garden when they reach a larger size in summer.

Microgreens are young plants that have started to grow but have not reached maturity. These shoots are abundant in valuable nutrients and are fast to germinate and grow. This can be a great quick crop project with young kids and perfect for a windowsill garden.

Crops that work well as microgreens include pea shoots, cress, mustard, beets.

Microgreens can be grown all year round and they only take a few weeks to produce a crop whenever needed. They have been used in restaurants for some time as chefs have taken advantage of their intense flavour and rich textures, making them perfect for soups, salads, garnishes and sandwiches. They can provide freshness to most dishes, have the health benefit of high nutrients and are ideal for growing through winter as a quick crop on the windowsill.