A GARDEN ON YOUR WINDOWSILL
All You Need Is a Pot And Some Sunshine

by Beth Lopez
(click photos to enlarge)

What can a person do who loves to garden but doesn’t have a yard, a garden plot or a balcony? If there is a window sill wide enough for a pot and if you have sun for some of the day at that window, you just might have the opportunity for a garden.

I am lucky in that I have wide windowsills facing south-east. They get morning sun and indirect afternoon and they are filtered through the bushes growing outside, so no hot, direct sun. This suits a lot of plants.

It is important to watch your sills for a bit before you buy plants. How much sun will they get? Is it direct, hot full sun? Or is it filtered and indirect? How many hours of sun? Of course, this changes over seasons, but you can tell if you have a dark sheltered window much of the day or if there is sun coming in when there is sun outside. Now you can choose your plants accordingly. Most plants have tags that tell you what environment they prefer. If you do have full direct sun that’s too hot, a sheer curtain will give a bit of shelter.

Windowsill gardens can be anything. This is your canvas to decorate as you will: big showy ferns or palms that overflow, gentle fuzzy African violets or delicate succulents and personal touches. Pots don’t have to be terra cotta. Whimsical or colorful or subtle, pots come in all sizes and forms. This is the living part of your décor and you can make it yours. Remember that every pot will need a saucer. Dripping water can ruin a wooden sill. But saucers are open to your imagination.

One more caveat about plants. Flowering plants will bloom once a year, some twice. The rest of the time, they are foliage. Don’t buy a flowering plant unless you will enjoy the foliage. Orchids bloom once a year, although the blooms can last for weeks. It’s so exciting to notice that your plant has sent out a spike and then to watch it grow over a couple months and then bloom. But even an orchid is big green leaves most of the year.

My windowsill garden is mostly made up of plants, but I bought a Schubertii Allium at market that has dried into a beautiful firework display. It sits happily among the living plants. I also have a few interesting bottles here and there because I like whimsical bottles.

Herbs do very well on windowsills. A pot of herbs can be trimmed for the soup pot and they will continue to grow. You will need a lot if you plan to use them regularly.

Beth enjoys her array of Burrow’s Tail succulent, coffee plant, coleus cuttings in water, coleus in the green/purple pot and the melancholy peace lily.

I think my favorite part of windowsill plants are the memories. When you garden, people know exactly the right gift to bring. I look at the orchids when they bloom again and I think of Mother’s Day and my daughter. The other orchid has been with me since before I retired, at least 12 years ago. It was a thank-you gift when I stepped down from a special committee and has bloomed again every year since I received it.

The rock planter with succulents was a gift to my husband who loves cacti, and over there are several tiny pots with baby cacti I started every time a leaf fell off. I love the deep green gloss of the coffee plant leaves and thank my daughter’s thoughtfulness.

There’s the peace lily I got for a birthday seven years ago. This plant is very dramatic when it gets thirsty. It has a most woebegone droop. It’s my bellwether. I see it droop and it reminds me that they all need a drink. I also think it’s time to re-pot the lily. It hasn’t bloomed in a while.

Windowsills are also good for experimenting. I have a pineapple plant that grew from the top of a pineapple that I ate. It grew really well for a year or so, now it seems to have hit a plateau. Maybe this also needs a re-pot. I have also tried growing ginger from a piece that sprouted, but it didn’t last. That would have been neat, having a ginger plant. I might have to try that again. There is also the famous avocado pit plant. I managed to do it once, but it’s a tree, not a house plant.

I also grow cuttings on the windowsill, especially coleus cuttings. If a coleus is not pruned regularly it will grow tall and leggy, with a long stem and a couple leaves at the top.

Okay, confession time. My very first house plant when I was a young woman was a coleus that arrived as a house warming gift. It loved the bathroom window – humidity and sun in abundance. I had no idea about caring for house plants. It grew and grew until the stem couldn’t support itself and it toppled. Since then I’ve learned that coleus should be pruned to maintain a thick low bushy appearance. When I trim them though, I am left with a dilemma – what to do with these perfectly healthy and beautiful cuttings? I just cannot throw them into the compost.

When the stars align just right, Beth enjoys the violets and the orchids blooming together.

I put them, cut end, in a cup of water and let them sit for a few weeks, changing the water once in a while and checking on progress. If you do this in a clear glass, you can practically watch the roots grow. At first, I would just tuck the stems into the original pot to fill it out, making it look lush and full. When room ran out, I put them in a new pot of soil. I now have two lovely coleus plants on my windowsill. For the last two years, I have planted the newly rooted coleus in my outdoor planter. They don’t survive the winter outside, but I’ll have more to plant next summer. Not to forget that a potted coleus makes a most welcome hostess gift!

And this is another memory from my windowsill. My second coleus is in an amazing piece of pottery with a glaze of purples and greens. The giver thought the colors would be perfect with my coleus. And every time I admire them together I am warmed by her thoughtfulness.

The best part of a windowsill garden is proximity. You don’t have to walk to your garden plot, or even go outside to the balcony. I just turn my head when I need a hit of green and I appreciate their beauty. I walk over and pick off a dead leaf, add water, pinch a flower on the coleus, turn the violet so the petals catch the sun and glitter. Five minutes quiet time with my plants makes the day better.

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