Growing herbs on a kitchen windowsill, what actually works

Growing herbs and greens on a windowsill, without a garden

Plenty of people write themselves off as gardeners because they are renting, or the yard is concrete, or there just is not room for a bed anywhere. You do not need any of it to grow something you can eat. A window that gets a few hours of sun, a pot with a drainage hole and a packet of seed is the whole setup, and the seed costs less than a coffee.

What will actually grow inside

Be realistic about this, because that is where most windowsill gardens fall over. You are not growing pumpkins in the kitchen. What does work is anything that gets picked young and does not need to hold up a heavy fruit.

• Herbs are the easy win. Basil, parsley, coriander, thyme and chives all cope indoors and you use them a leaf at a time, so one plant goes a long way.
• Leafy greens like rocket, spinach and silverbeet are quick and forgiving, and you pick the outside leaves and let the middle keep going.
• Radishes will do it in a deep pot, because they are fast and they are not fussy.
• Sprouts and microgreens are the fastest thing you can grow anywhere, and they suit a bench even better than a sill.

Light is the bit that decides everything

Your window is its own little climate and the direction it faces matters more than anything you buy. A west facing window gets that strong afternoon sun, an east facing one is gentler and gets it early, and down here a south facing window is the shady one, so anything living there needs to be a plant that tolerates low light rather than a basil you are hoping for the best with.

If your light is marginal, a few things help. Turn the pots a quarter turn every week or so, because a plant that is only ever lit from one side leans and goes leggy chasing it. Move things as close to the glass as you can get them without cooking the leaves against it on a hot day. And pick varieties that are labelled for partial sun rather than full sun.

The starter kit, which is shorter than you think

• A pot with a drainage hole and a saucer under it. No hole means no drainage, and no drainage means a dead plant with wet feet.
• A bag of potting mix, or seed raising mix if you are starting from seed rather than a seedling.
• Seed or seedlings. Basil, chives and loose leaf lettuce are the ones I would start anybody on.
• Something to water gently with. A spray bottle is fine for seedlings, because a full watering can will wash the seed straight out of the mix.
• A liquid fertiliser to keep it fed once it is up and getting picked.

The four mistakes that kill windowsill plants

None of these are complicated and all of them are common, so it is worth knowing them before you start rather than after.

1. Overwatering. Indoor soil dries out much slower than a garden bed does, so put a finger in up to the first knuckle and if it comes out damp, leave it alone.
2. Crowding the pot. One plant per small pot. Six basil seedlings in a takeaway container will all be weak instead of one being good.
3. Using a gloomy window. If the room feels dim to you it is dim to the plant, and no amount of watering fixes that.
4. Never picking anything. Herbs get bushier when you keep cutting the tops out of them, so a basil you are too precious to touch will bolt to flower and stop.

Why it is worth bothering with

A windowsill garden will not feed you and that is not really the point of it. What it does do is put fresh herbs within arm's reach of the pan, which is the difference between a meal with coriander in it and a meal without, and it gives you somewhere to learn on where the stakes are a pot of seed. Plenty of people who now have a full veggie patch out the back started with one basil on a sill.

Shop related products

• D.T Brown Sweet Basil Seed. The one to start with, and it will keep going all through the warm months if you keep picking it.
• D.T Brown Italian Parsley Seed. Stronger flavoured than the curled sort and it handles a shadier window.
• D.T Brown Coriander Seed. Sow a small amount every few weeks, because coriander runs to seed quickly.
• Brunnings Seed Raising Mix 5L. Fine mix made for germinating seed, and the right size for indoor pots.
• Brunnings Premium Potting Mix 36L. What the seedlings go into once they are up and away.

There is a full rack of D.T Brown seed at the shop and more in the garden range online. Come in and have a look through the garden centre if you are not sure what suits your window, that is what we are there for.

Read next

• Three easy to grow summer vegetables for beginners
• Five easy to grow tomato varieties for beginners
• Do I need acid loving potting mix for blueberry bushes?

I am still convinced coriander can smell fear, so if yours bolts, you are in good company.

Candeece

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