Window Sill Gardens for Apartments

I can not express my jealousy to all of you with land and big beautiful gardens. That is by far one of the biggest reason I can’t wait to move out and have land. Until then there is no reason I can not try my hand at growing a few things. I have found that the biggest bang for my buck has been growing salad greens and herbs. Both are much better and cheaper by growing yourself.  I had let gone a while without having a window garden but after buying fresh basil recently and paying the ridiculous prices for a few leaves I decided it was time to plant. Lets get our hands dirty and get planting.

Focus On The Solution Not The Problem

Too many tend to focus on the problem and not finding a solution. I can grow this where I am, can’t do that in my apartment, so on and so forth. When the more productive thing would be what can you grow, how can you grow and what can you do. My problem was I no land since I live in an apartment. My solution was to use planters in my window sills and grown what I could in them. Luckily my windows are south facing and get plenty of light year round. In the past I have had planters in every window and had quite a bit growing at once. A lot relatively speaking that is for the space.  I was able to eat a salad a few times a week and it be the freshest greens. Also having them in the window is the easiest to care for and pick with no worries of pests.

 

 

Prepare the Planters

I had left the soil in the planters from the last time I had used them. Also I never pull out the plants when they die. I just cut them and lay them on top to keep the soil fertile. The first thing I did was to break up the dry soil. It had been dry for months and was all clumped together. I used my fingers to crumble and break it up so it was light and fluffy. After that I added a little water to soak into the soil. I topped off the planters with some fresh potting mix to help the pants grow.

Planting the Herbs

After my planters were prepared I added my seeds. For my herbs I went with Basil and Cilantro. They are my two favorite and most used herbs. For the cilantro the seeds are pretty big so I added two seeds on top of the soil in case one didn’t grow. If they both grow I will cut the weaker growing of the two. On the basil the seeds were tiny and I’m not trying to be precise so I just sprinkled a few down. On the Basil, since there is only room to grow two plants in this box, I will cull out all but one plant. The strongest, fastest growing plant will be the one to live. After I get my seeds down I cover lightly with more fresh potting mix and water.

Planting the Salad Greens

For the salad mix I went with a Black seeded Simpson lettuce and a Swiss chard. I like this combination or greens. If I had more room I’d use some romaine as well. For the salad seeds I sprinkle them down pretty thick. I want plenty of seeds down there to grow thick like a eddible lawn of greens. After the seeds are down I cover with more soil and water.

Planters in Place

After I’m planted and watered I set the boxes in the window and wait. In a few weeks time I should have enough greens grown to begin harvesting them. For the greens I just use scissors to cut off the tops what I need to make a salad. That way the greens go straight from the planter to the plate and are the peak of freshness. Doing it this way I should get several clippings before the greens are done. If you start a second box of greens a few weeks after the first one and replant the first one when it dies you can continually have fresh salads from the window. The herbs will take a bit longer to establish and be useable. In fact normally I tend to just buy established herbs instead of starting them from seeds.

Now you have no excuse to not have fresh herbs and salad greens no matter where you live. So make use of the wasted window space and get growing there. If you will use your creativity you can overcome any problem you face.

Have you come up with creative solutions to your problems? How do you grow plants in unique way? Let me know in the comments!