What to grow on windowsills

[cariann88]

As most of you probably know, I am moving into a flat at the weekend. It doesn't have a garden and I do not want to miss out growing my own.

I was just wondering what fruit and veg can I grow? And can I still grow tomatoes and cucumbers, if so what type is the best?

[Martin H]

Hi Carrie,

You don't know till you try!

Windowsills have less light than greenhouses so I suggest that cucumbers might do better than tomatoes. But I would try both and put the tomatoes in the sunniest spot. Best to choose varieties that don't grow too big though, I'm sure the grapes can help here.

Most of our native vegetables like it cooler than a typical flat can manage, unfortunately. But I'd certainly try lettuce (give them one night in the fridge after sowing to help them germinate) and radish with the tomatoes where it's sunny.

Does your new flat have windowbox or hanging basket potential?

[Guest]

Oo, I have just started reading the edible balcony (don't suppose you have one? balcony that is, not book). Did you know it is estimated that there is 600 acres of windowsill space in the UK that could be used for growing? pointless fact for the day. (That is about as far as I have got into the book)

I don't suppose there is a communal garden or anything you can enquire about looking after?

Anyhoo, crops for the windowsill IMO cress, microgreens, pea shoots, salad leaves, sweet peppers, chilli peppers, bush toms (there were a couple of varieties in the VSP) herbs, possibly DFB and strawbs. I wouldn't say cue but it depends how stubborn you are- I would look for smaller varieties and try and rig up a mini trellis to go round the window and tie/train it into that but it would be experimental.

Good luck. Make sure you let us know how it goes

[Chippy Minton]

We grow Aubergines on ours.

[Penellype]

I grow tomatoes, sweet peppers and herbs on my windowsills along with baby leaves and pea shoots at times if I run out of space under the grow lights. You can also grow things like bean sprouts and alfalfa sprouts in a jam jar - they don't need light.

The main problem with windowsills is that the light all comes from one direction. This means that unless you turn the pots frequently (and for young plants this can mean more than once a day) they will start to lean towards the window and may fall over. You will also find that because there is no top lighting the plants will be leggier than those grown outside or under lights. This doesn't matter if you are prepared to eat your lettuces etc as cut and come again when the leaves are small, but if you want to grow lettuces with hearts, a windowsill won't work. I've grown small amounts of Lollo Rossa and Salad Bowl lettuce on windowsills. The pea shoots do ok too.

Tomatoes are a bit of a challenge. I am lucky to have a wide windowsill in my sitting room which will accomodate tomato plants, but I have also grown them in the kitchen which has the usual sized sill (the width of a cavity wall). I've tried various varieties and find Shirley the best. Bush varieties sound a good idea because they don't grow tall, but when I tried these they were a disaster because they bushed out towards the light and literally pushed themselves off the windowsill. Vigorous varieties like Sungold are hopeless because they produce too much stem before any trusses appear. Attempting to grow these resulted in top heavy plants that fell of the windowsill. You need to be ruthless and stop the plants at 1 or 2 trusses depending on the height of your window. I use 3 litre pots and I allow the sideshoots at the bottom to grow up and replace the main stem once I have stopped off the top. You'll need canes, sometimes more than 1 per pot, and you'll need to feed them regularly because of the small volume of compost.

There are varieties of tomato that are very small indeed - sweet n neat is one. I have not tried these so I can't comment on things like flavour.

The peppers I grow are California Wonder (red) which is a bell pepper and Snackbite orange which is a pointed little one, about the size of a chili. I grow these on a standard width windowsill in 2 litre pots and they produce about 6-8 small peppers per plant, then often a 2nd flush later in the year. I have tried other varieties of bell pepper, but some make quite big, branched plants which are too wide for the windowsill. I haven't needed to stake these in this sized pot and they are quite manageable. The picture below shows the remaining 2 of the 4 plants I grew on the landing windowsill (south facing), taken this morning. The plants are looking very tired now, but still have one green pepper each:



Snackbite Orange on the left, California Wonder on the right.

[cariann88]

Does your new flat have windowbox or hanging basket potential?

No windowbox or hanging baskets.

[cariann88]

Oo, I have just started reading the edible balcony (don't suppose you have one? balcony that is, not book). Did you know it is estimated that there is 600 acres of windowsill space in the UK that could be used for growing? pointless fact for the day. (That is about as far as I have got into the book)

I don't suppose there is a communal garden or anything you can enquire about looking after?

Anyhoo, crops for the windowsill IMO cress, microgreens, pea shoots, salad leaves, sweet peppers, chilli peppers, bush toms (there were a couple of varieties in the VSP) herbs, possibly DFB and strawbs. I wouldn't say cue but it depends how stubborn you are- I would look for smaller varieties and try and rig up a mini trellis to go round the window and tie/train it into that but it would be experimental.

Good luck. Make sure you let us know how it goes

I have put my name down on the council for an allotment. But I could be waiting years until I get one.

[Kristen]

Oo, I have just started reading the edible balcony (don't suppose you have one? balcony that is, not book). Did you know it is estimated that there is 600 acres of windowsill space in the UK that could be used for growing? pointless fact for the day

I don't think pointless ... I saw a program / documentary recently about growing crops in urban areas, some of it was on scrub - land where they were waiting for planning permission and this group had all their veg in wood boxes - so they could move the whole lot to a new site as soon as building work was ready to start - but the programme also considered how it would be if all flat roofs of tower blocks, etc. was put to use and the nett effect would be that a large proportion of the town would be able to have fresh veg. Worth having a go I reckon

Let us know how the rest of the book pans out?

[Kristen]

I have put my name down on the council for an allotment. But I could be waiting years until I get one.

Does Landshare (on Channel 4 website from memory) still exist? Dunno if that is likely to be active in town though.

[kathyd]

I wonder if you could have window boxes? Or would the regulations not allow it?

[Snow]

I used to grow tomatoes and herbs on mine. The tomatoes get quite big but love the heat and sun and do well. They also create a lovely fresh smell. Good luck and enjoy.

[cariann88]

Update

At the moment I am growing tomatoes, herbs, peppers, chillies and beetroot.

[Scarlet]

What about lettuce and radish?

[veggiechicken]

Mixed salad leaves? Rocket?

[Penellype]

This lollo rossa lettuce is on a south facing landing windowsill - there are 12 plants here and I am picking a few leaves almost every day. It isn't quite as red as when grown outside because of the lack of light, but otherwise it tolerates these conditions very well. No slugs here either