Groaning trugs of fruit, veg and herbs can feel like a distant dream if you are short on garden space, or have no garden at all. It is true that certain crops will be just out of reach, but if you have a sunny windowsill you are halfway there to growing vegetables on your windowsill, right there in your kitchen!
Even better, these plants make attractive additions to your home, and many of them are speedy croppers, so you can reap the rewards of your green fingers in no time! They are all vegetables you can grow in pots or add to a window box idea to bulk out your fresh cooking ingredients.
Here are our seven top vegetables to plant on a windowsill.
1. Chilli peppers
Chillies are a fantastic choice for windowsill growing, as they are productive but also look beautiful, so make a wonderful, decorative houseplant while you wait for them to bear fruit.
There is an enormous range of different varieties of pepper with varying levels of heat, different sizes, shapes and colours of fruits, as well as different colours of foliage, too – so there will definitely be a type for you! The thing to keep in mind when growing chillies in pots is the hotter chillies require a longer season so they will need to be started early in the year, but the plants are generally fairly low-maintenance and offer up beautiful fruits which add a bit of heat (or not) to your cooking.
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2. Tomatoes
Not technically a vegetable, but too good to leave out! This one does come with a bit of a caveat – you will need to make sure you choose a variety of tomato suitable for this kind of growing, which may restrict you slightly.
However, if you love delicious, sweet cherry types of tomato plucked straight from the truss, you are in luck! You can easily grow tomotoes in pots if they are the compact types with small fruits will do very well in a sunny spot on a windowsill, kept well watered and fed with good-quality tomato feed.
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3. Lettuce
Snipping salads from your kitchen windowsill for your lunch is something we can all enjoy. Lettuce plants will need a decent amount of natural sunlight in the daytime to really thrive, but they are simple to care for an offer tasty harvests really speedily.
Make sure you are growing loose leaf types which suit this type of growing better than hearting types, and you will be rewarded with cut-and-come-again pickings, year-round.
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4. Beetroot
Synonymous with sprawling allotment plots, you might think growing beetroot wouldn’t be possible on a windowsill garden, but it is! Baby beets are delicious, as are the beet leaves, so although you will not be able to grow them on to cricket ball size, you will be enjoying sweet, earthy and tender additions to your meals in no time.
Sow the little seed clusters finely in a container of good-quality compost, and thin out. Harvest baby roots when they reach the size of a golf ball, or take the delicious leaves as and when.
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5. Pea shoots
If you’re looking for a crop that offers a real punch of flavour, pea shoots are for you! They a similar to growing other microgreens in that they are super speedy and make the ideal addition to sandwiches and salads. What’s more, they can be grown year-round on your windowsill.
As you won’t be growing the plants on to full size, you can sow a little more thickly than you normally would in a tray of good-quality, peat-free compost. Cover the seeds lightly with a little more compost and water. Keep watering as needed and within three weeks you will be rewarded with these flavour-packed peas shoots, ready to elevate your meals as a gourmet garnish!
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6. Radishes
These peppery little roots are the perfect addition to a windowsill garden – and they will be ready to eat around four weeks after sowing, so are great for the impatient gardener!
There are lots of different kinds to choose from, and the size of your growing container will inform which the best option is for you. Space seeds approximately 5cm apart to allow the roots space to swell, cover with a fine layer of compost and keep the soil evenly moist, and you will be rewarded with delicious pickings in no time!
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7. Herbs
The world really is your oyster when it comes to windowsill growing and indoor herb garden ideas. From basil to mint, chives to parsley, coriander to rosemary – the culinary choices are almost endless, and puts these wonderful ingredients are right in arm’s reach as you cook!
Place your herbs in a bright spot that receives a good amount of light throughout the day, and check the individual care needs of the types you are growing. Most are simple to care for, just requiring regular watering and picking to keep up healthy growth.
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FAQs
Can you grow vegetables in troughs?
Climate change gardening expert and author of The Climate Change Resilient Vegetable Garden, Kim Stoddart, assures us 'Absolutely! You can even grow windowsill veg in an old vase or supermarket tray.
'A trough provides a decent amount of space for lots of lovely pickings such as loose leaf salad, rocket, herbs and microgreens. Depending on how deep your trough is you could also potentially grow baby carrots and beetroot, dwarf French beans and radishes. The more soil there is, the more food there will be for your plants. Pick-and-come-again varieties are easiest to work with and the more you pick, the more you get – how fantastic is that!'
Can you grow veg on a windowsill over winter?
You absolutely can! Light levels will be lower in the winter months so some crops will be more challenging than others – however, you can continue growing an array of herbs and microgreens to scratch that gardening itch!
You can also try keeping your chillies going – they are most often grown as annual plants, but with the right conditions are in fact perennials, so if you fancy a bit of a challenge, give the plant a prune, pick off any remaining fruits and keep in a frost-free spot ready for them to burst back into life in spring!
What fruit can you grow on a windowsill?
Kim has some fantastic recommendations, 'The easiest fruit to work with on a windowsill have to be strawberries, and inside they will be better protected from pests, and also cheeky blackbirds which just love any home-grown fruit.
'You can also grow citrus indoors and they make very attractive houseplants. Plus, there are now lots of dwarf varieties of fruit bred specially for windowsill or small space growing so choose from smaller plants for an exciting array of fruits at your home-grown disposal.'
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