The Windowsill Experiment - Growing Edible Plants Indoors

I have been growing spring onions in a glass of water (from the bulbs I cut off the last batch of spring onions) and they are flourishing (I could cut to use them now, and its been less than a week!).

I have decided I suck at growing herbs outdoors so I'm going to set up a little indoor herb table right next to the sunniest window of the house. We use a lot of fresh herbs (Continental Parsley, Mint, Basil, Rosemary, Thyme, Chives)... and I've been doing a lot of reading in which people have their own indoor herb gardens - windowsill style!

So have you done it? What did you find lived longer? Did you have to move certain herbs away from sun at certain times of the year?

Herbs are pretty hardy little buggers, I don't think you would have to move them.

When you go to the nursery, you can read their tags to see how much sun the like and then plant them together - at the moment, in a pot I've got thyme, oregano, coriander which all want full sun, and then basil which wants halfish sun so I've planted that behind the others.
I'm trying to remember to water these every day while they settle in (and until I get a saucer!), but my greatest success with herbs has been when they've been in a self watering pot. :)

You could even try bigger planters on a balcony/deck so it'd be close to the house - the bigger the pot the bigger and more established a plant can get, and I think the bigger they get the hardier they get.

Planters on my deck die. It's a proven statistic. So I'm going to go with the indoor herbary. I've done a fair bit of research now and it's extremely doable. I'm going to get a tea trolley and use it to house my pots... which I might make out of quirky ceramics and the like.

I'm very excited... I needed a new project and one that relates back to my kitchen is awesome :D

That would more than likely not being watered enough darlink. Planters dry out very very quickly and in the warmer months need to be watered every morning.

Which is why self watering pots really are pretty cool. But you could always water plants if you ever step out for fresh air during the day, it doesn't take long.

or children with water pistols :rolleyes:

Also if you've been on my deck in summer... you'll understand it's hotter there than in the sun. I promise I watered. And besides... you don't think I'm that daft to think that just because they are inside they don't need to be watered? Do you? LOL!

And I'll be sure to keep you all posted with my windowsill experiment :)

have you thought of doing a vertical garden bed? You can hang it from the wall like wall art and you should be able to grow heaps of herbs in that. You can keep them simple and use a sprayer to water the herbs, or go a little fancier and rig up a frame with a small pond pump to syphon water from a reservoir in the base back to the top (which will then filter through the growing medium, watering all the plants and gather again at the base ready for pumping back to the top!!) - people generally use something like shade cloth to keep the soil or other growing medium trapped in place and cut holes in it to fit the herbs in. You can make them yourself or spend LOTS of money buying ready made.

Just a thought for if you run out of room on your windowsill ;) Growing your own herbs can get very addictive, and uses a lot of space when you start growing everything that you want!

Somewoman!! (warning, minor hijack) Tell me HOW!! Do you know how to do that? Have you done it? Can you do that indoors?

Mulching around herbs helps e.g peastraw. (to lower evapouration rates, act as a weedmat too).

in our recent 40 plus temps, i have discovered, EVEN IN FULL BAKING SUN ZERO SHADE (my backyard), rocket and lemon balm seem indestructible. to my amazement.

but lots of the other herbs turned to brown potato crisps (died). So the indoor herb garden idea sounds great to me.

i want to grow lemongrass, chives and basil the most (to cook with). the last few summers have all been heatwave summers (many over 35 degree days,weeks) which have massacred all my basil attempts.

i would love to see a photo blog on "how to make the vertical herb planter thingy" out of shadecloth or whatever you make it out of. Shadecloth is so expensive, i'd love to know how much to get and how to use it wisely.

dame woman if I lived closer I could give you some garlic chive plants...those buggers grow like no other.

Its so funny you start this thread cause I was saying to jed the other night that I owuld LOVE one of other kitchen windows designed especially so you can grow herbs inside..I think that would be so cool.

Ive got a window box that im currently trying to grow cherry tomatoes in, a hanging pot with a strawberry plant and another with lettuce growing, all out my front door on my little verandah (my front door is straight out of my kitchen.

I just make sure that I water regularly and I do this by keeping a 2L jug in my kitchen sink so when I wash a cup out or my hands it catches the water and when its full I can water my plants. Not wasting water and my plants are getting it...2 positives.

Id be saying just watch the after noon sun cause it coming through a window can be leathal

Thank you maz :hug: That was just the advice I was after.

My spring onions are still going strong and I'll probably get some herbs this weekend and then I'm going to start taking photos :)

Sorry, I never answered your questions properly did I. :(

Thyme is indestructible for me, as is mint and parsley. Basil goes nuts and then dies back. I've never had great success with Coriander, I don't think it likes our temperate climate. I don't know. I'm trying to learn about it so I can make it work.

more then welcome..im gonna follow this thread like a rotten fart now :ROFL:

a rosemary plant is a sun lover and love's a place were they dont get a draft or strong winds so you could try one of them.
I was even thinking of trying snowpea's on one of those cone type climbing frames but then id need the room.

My mission now is to put a cucumber plant in on the front porch cause everytime I plant them out the back the dame earwigs eat them on me :angry:

I haven't tried growing any herbs indoors yet. Although, I do have a rack on the wall with a couple of little pots which were supposed to be for growing some herbs, I just haven't got around to it yet. I like somewomans idea of the vertical herb garden! Might try that. That would make a nice feature in the kitchen :)

Outdoors, the only successful herb I've grown is rosemary. At my previous house, I had a garden bed out the front next to the driveway and the rosemary grew like weeds and smelt divine. I never watered it regularly either.

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Somewoman!! (warning, minor hijack) Tell me HOW!! Do you know how to do that? Have you done it? Can you do that indoors?

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LOL! =)))

I haven't done one yet myself - waiting for our house to be built (but we will have one as soon as we're there!!). It's one of my first planned projects =) And yes, you can do it indoors if you have an appropriate location for your plants of choice

you can do a web search on vertical herb garden and it will return heaps of results and images. A good one to look at for inspiration is The Garden Gurus - TV: Gardening Channel - in the "soil and improvement" section you will find vertical herb garden - they give a basic description of how to put one together. You don't need to do it as big as what they have (and you could also change the shape according to the area that you have), but it gives an idea on how to get it going.

You could also do it using different materials - both in construction or in growing medium (soil versus rockwool, etc). Some people make them partitioned into sections for each plant, but the partitions need to allow water to pass through if you want to use a pump to create a reticulated watering system in it.

If you're handy, it really wouldn't take much! Once you have the basic thought and design in your head you can go from there =) Would love to see what you do if you decide to make one! =)

Have started a FB albulm of my gardening adventures :)

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for those who are interested :lol:

Rouge I saw a book on windowsill gardening yesterday and wondered how you were going. Have you started much or are you still in the planning stages?

I'm following this thread with interest... don't need to grow them inside but it's interesting hearing about what grows successfully in Melbourne. I find that anything that springs up near our taps outside does really well... it's part shade too which i think they like. Chives are doing great in our outside patch even though they are being crowded out by the carrots... i think they like the partial shade the carrots tops are giving. i want to grow dill next... it seems to grow ok in other melbourne gardens...

Delia smith had an amzing indoor herb garden (I think) in one of her TV shows....