Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could grab a handful of your favorite veggies right from the window? Growing them right at the window is an excellent option for you if you live in an urban apartment, condo, or flat. This way, you can grow your own organic food and receive fresh vegetables.
Do not miss our article on fruits you can grow in hanging baskets! Click here
How to Make a Window Box Vegetable Garden
Usually, window boxes are attached to the windows to grow ornamental plants to improve curb appeal. You can install them at your kitchen window to grow herbs and vegetables. You can even keep them indoors on your kitchen windowsill or place on the parapet or the floor of your balcony or rooftop.
What Size Window Box Should You Have?
The height of the window box should not be more than 20-25 percent of the height of the window. To grow vegetables successfully, your window box should be 8 inches deep and 6 inches wide, at least. A 10-12 inches depth is ideal for most plants. When it comes to length, it should be equal to the length of your window, neither too short or too large.
Perfect Window to Hang them?
For your window box vegetable garden, your kitchen window must receive sunlight. A minimum of 4 hours of direct sunlight and day-long bright indirect sunlight is alright for many partial shade herbs and greens. However, the more, the better–Ideally, six hours of sunshine or more is what you need for most of the edible plants. If your kitchen window is shady, either grow shade-tolerant vegetables or identify other windows in your home.
Vegetables that Grow Best in Window Boxes
You should look for vegetables that provide more harvest and take less space. One more factor apart from the size that matters is root growth–Shallow root vegetables are great contenders. Herbs, determinate tomatoes, dwarf pepper varieties, beets, peas, greens, and some root vegetables are best. Apart from that, you should also consider what you use most in your cooking.
For your help, we’re listing some of the best window box vegetables below:
List of Best Window box Vegetables
1. Lettuce
With its shallow roots and quick-growing nature, lettuce makes for a top contender for window boxes. Also, check out the list of best lettuce varieties here.
Growing Tips
Click here for lettuce growing tips.
2. Spinach
A small box is all you need to grow spinach right by the kitchen window or on a balcony. Petunias, marigolds, and parsley are excellent spinach companion plants. It is one of the best window box vegetables!
Learn everything about growing spinach here.
3. Bush Beans
Bush beans can be a great addition to your window box and grow best in the balcony, patio, and terrace in pots. Their ease of growing nature makes them perfect for novice gardeners.
Keep the soil slightly moist for best growth.
Check out our article on types of beans here
4. Radish
When it comes to fast-growing vegetables, radish tops the list. Check out the types of radishes you can grow in window boxes.
Learn how to grow radish here.
5. Green Onions
Green onions can grow in partial shade easily, which makes them a perfect edible for your indoor kitchen windowsill. This way, you can grow them year-round.
Learn everything about growing it here.
6. Carrots
Sweet and crunchy carrots are loaded with antioxidants and essential nutrients. Nantes and Danvers are some of the best varieties to grow in window boxes.
While you can grow any type of carrot, shorter varieties are good for window boxes and pots.
7. Garlic
Garlic greens and cloves can both be grown in pots, even indoors as well. You can add fresh greens to a variety of food.
Click here to learn about growing garlic.
8. Cherry Tomatoes
While you can grow many determinate tomato varieties, cherry tomatoes are best for this purpose.
Check out the most important tomato growing tips.
9. Pepper
You can grow both the sweet and dwarf hot peppers as they won’t grow big and sprawl to overcrowd the window boxes.
Learn how to grow bell pepper in pots here.
10. Salad Greens
Having your own ‘salad bar’ on a kitchen window box, feet away from your hands will be great for an uninterrupted supply as nothing beats the taste of homegrown produce and the salad greens.
Find out the names of the best leafy vegetables for your salad garden.
11. Herbs
The selection of herbs depends on what you use most–Basil, thyme, cilantro, rosemary, oregano, parsley, mints, chamomile, and sage are some of the options.
Learn about the best cooking herbs here.
12. Asian Greens
Asian greens like bok choy, mizuna, and tatsoi are easy to grow and perfect for window boxes. What’s more, they don’t need full sun to grow.
Check out our article on growing Asian greens here.
- Anita
- July 20, 2020 At 12:37 am
- Kindly guide us for kitchen garden
- Reply
Kindly guide us for kitchen garden
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