What herbs can be grown on a windowsill, rules for caring for plants. How to protect yourself from nitrates in early vegetables and fruits? What herbs can be grown on a windowsill?

Hello, lovers of natural products! Today I, Elena, will tell you about herbs on the windowsill, the cultivation of which will make your winter diet even healthier.

A special need for greenery is felt in the spring, and it is at this time, with increasing daylight hours, that it is easiest to grow it. Some plants are not so whimsical and can grow on the windowsill all year round.

As children, we always stored molehill soil for the winter. Light and airy, without extra roots and pest larvae, it is excellent for seedlings.

The mole unerringly chooses good land to live in. It throws soil to the surface from a depth of up to 40 cm - as a rule, this is fertile soil, which is especially valued by owners of clay areas. Mole soil does not need to be treated with anything other than the disinfecting phytosporin.

If it is not possible to get this nutritious soil, soil for indoor plants will do. If you use ordinary soil from the garden, it must first be calcined in the oven and mixed with soil for indoor plants (to avoid strong acidification).

Choosing the right container

Most crops grow best in long seedling boxes. Some herbs (like watercress) don't require much space and any available container will do. Onions are often grown in cake containers, and sometimes even in plastic bottles, turning them into multi-story houses.

Choosing planting material

The best seeds, as you know, grow in their own area. However, not all of them are suitable for window growing, because early varieties are preferred for indoor greenery. In this case, it is advisable to go to a specialized store or online.

What plants should be grown on the window?

Bow on feather

Onions are one of the most unpretentious crops. It can be grown not only in the ground, but also in water (to avoid rotting and unpleasant odor, the water must be changed frequently).

Landing: To quickly obtain greenery, the tops of the plant are cut off, as can be seen in the photo. Some also remove the husks. The feather grows well from both large onion sets and turnip bulbs. And in the spring, you can pick up already sprouted bulbs in a regular grocery store - this will yield a green harvest even faster.

Care: Onions are not afraid of cold or draft. It requires moderate watering.

Harvesting: Cut feathers little by little (2 - 3 pieces) from each plant as soon as they reach about 10 cm in height.

Watercress

Another simple and healthy culture that will help you recharge with vitamins in just a couple of weeks.

Sowing: Seeds are planted 1 cm deep in watered, loose soil. Growing in a damp cloth is also practiced, but in this case timely watering is required. Shoots appear on the third day. Harvest when the grass reaches 5 cm in height.

Care: The plant tolerates shade and cold well. You can even grow it on northern windows. It likes regular watering and loosening, but fertilizing should not be done, because too little time passes from planting to ripening, and substances we do not need accumulate in the plants.

Harvesting: For an uninterrupted supply of greens to the table, it is better to plant 2 boxes with a difference of 10 days: in one of them the cutting will be done, and in the other the greens will be renewed.

Leaf mustard

It is also very easy to grow.

Sowing: For planting, you need a container with a depth of 10 cm. The pot must be provided with drainage from special pebbles, and it is advisable to mix the soil with coconut fiber in a 1:2 ratio (but hardly anyone follows this recommendation).

Care: Mustard tolerates temperatures well up to +10, so it can easily live on a balcony in the fall or on a cool windowsill in winter. On the contrary, she does not like heat from +20 and goes into the arrow.

You can delay bolting by thickening the planting as much as possible. On cloudy days it is advisable to use additional lighting. The plant likes to be sprayed with water and moderate (especially in winter) watering. If ordinary street soil is taken for sowing, then in the phase of 2–4 true mustard leaves it is advisable to feed the mustard with Rost or Agrolife.

Harvesting: About 3 weeks after sowing, the greens are harvested. After cutting, the bush can produce additional yields.

Leaf salad

This culture itself is quite capricious: it loves light and moisture, and with insufficient watering it acquires a bitter taste. But some varieties (Batavia, Lollo Rosa, Vitamin, New Year, etc.) can withstand high temperatures and short-term drought, and are therefore recommended for indoor gardening.

Sowing: For salad, select a container from 10 to 30 cm deep, always with a hole in the bottom and drainage. It is also advisable to add coconut fiber, humus, and sand to the soil. Seeds are placed in spilled soil to a depth of 0.5 cm, grooves are made at a distance of 10 cm from each other (or pots are used). Then the container is covered with film until the first shoots appear (4 – 5 days). It is better to place the container in the south or southeast.

Care: The salad does well at temperatures from 17 to 21 degrees. When it gets colder, it is better to remove it from the window. The recommended length of daylight for it is 12–14 hours, so on short winter days it will require lighting with fluorescent lamps.

The salad needs thinning. The first is carried out a week after emergence. Leave 2 cm between plants. The second time - in the phase of 2 true leaves - 4 - 5 cm between the bushes. Since the growing season of lettuce is short, it is not recommended to use fertilizer with a high content of nitrogen or iodine.

Harvesting: Greens are cut off gradually, starting from the outer leaves. When the arrows appear (this is approximately 4 weeks after sowing), the bush is removed and a new one is planted in its place. To obtain a continuous harvest, it is recommended to sow every 10 days.

Basil

A tasty and easy-to-use seasoning will turn the kitchen into a branch of the apothecary’s garden, especially if you sow plants of different colors. It is worth considering that green bushes grow faster than purple ones, and low-growing varieties are considered champions in early ripening.

Sowing: Basil grows well not only from seeds, but also from young shoots dug up in the garden. However, the first method is preferable: the harvest can be obtained over a long period of time. To speed up germination, the seeds can be soaked in warm water for a couple of days (the water needs to be changed every 12 hours), then kept in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 2 hours and dried on a cloth.

The requirements for containers and soil are the same as for lettuce. Sowing is done in moist and loose soil. Leave 1 – 2 cm between seeds. 1 – 2 cm of soil is poured on top, cover with film and put in a warm place until the first sprouts (about 2 weeks).

Care consists of regular watering in summer and moderate watering in winter. In the warm season, greens can be sprayed in the morning. Also, during the short daylight hours, the plant is illuminated for 12 hours with an LED lamp installed 20 cm from the pot.

Bushes grow well if you pinch them in a timely manner, that is, cut off the top leaves, leaving at least 4 below. This can be done for the first time after 6 true leaves appear. If you look closely, you can see in the photo how new leaves are forming in the axils of the lower leaves. Over time, side shoots of the bush will grow from them.

Harvesting: Greens are obtained as the plant grows.

Parsley

It is difficult to obtain a good harvest from seeds: greens grow slowly. It is much more convenient to stick a root from the garden into the pot. I'll tell you how to grow it in two ways.

Sowing: The easiest way to get greens at home is from the early varieties: Grandmother's Garden, Beads, Gloria, Astra, Ordinary Leaf, etc. To speed up germination, the seeds are soaked in water for several days, then treated with potassium permanganate.

A flower pot or seedling box is suitable as a container. Drainage is definitely needed, because parsley does not like excess moisture. The seeds are immersed in grooves half a centimeter deep, then covered with earth and lightly compacted. The pots covered with film are put in a warm place.

Planting rhizomes: Before the soil freezes, dig up roots up to 5 cm in length (for better survival, the greens are cut off). They are planted in a pre-disinfected box with a drainage layer at the bottom and put in a cool place until new leaves appear.

Harvesting: The first greens are cut when the branches reach 10 cm in height.

Dill

This plant feels good in the garden, but at home it is quite demanding in terms of lighting and temperature conditions. For beginners and those with shaded windows, it is better to try growing fragrant grass in spring or summer.

Sowing: For indoor breeding, it is better to choose early ripening varieties: Grenadier, Gribovsky. The seeds must be soaked in water for several hours and then kept in potassium permanganate. Only those seeds that sank during soaking are suitable for growing.

Dill is sown in seedling pots or peat pots and then transferred to other containers. Below there should be drainage, then sand, and the top layer must include fertile soil (special soil or a mixture of soil with peat and humus). The seeds are covered with earth, the pot is covered with film and put away in a bright and warm (+18 and above) place.

Care: Dill loves being sprayed with water. In autumn and winter, the plant must be illuminated in the morning. For this, a regular lamp mounted 50 cm above the pot will do. The duration of illumination is up to 5 hours if the plants live on the windowsill, and up to 15 if they are far from the window (but it is better not to do this with dill).

In addition, the plants need to be rotated so that all the bushes reach the sun, and at night they need to be put away in a cooler place. Twice a month dill is fed with mineral fertilizers. The best temperature for growing is approximately 16 - 20 degrees.

Harvesting: The ripening time of greens depends on the season and the care taken. It is recommended to sow a new batch every 10 days.

Thyme (thyme)

A beautiful and fragrant plant can be grown both in warm weather with a rest in winter, and all year round - subject to additional lighting. Seeds and cuttings are used as planting material.

Sowing: Thyme seeds have good germination. A container with a depth of 15 cm with a small drainage layer at the bottom is suitable for them. Several seeds are placed in moistened soil (it is most convenient to use a spray bottle), a layer of earth about 1 cm is poured on top and covered with film. If the lighting on the window is strong, it is recommended to slightly shade the container.

Propagation by cuttings: Leaves are removed from faded thyme branches and an oblique cut is made, after which they are placed in an opaque container with water. The roots will grow better if you add honey (1 teaspoon per liter of water) or Epin-Extra (two drops per glass) to the water. You can also plant a plant with roots in a pot, the main thing is to choose a container slightly wider than the clod, so that the bush has room to grow, but the soil does not turn sour.

Care: In nature, thyme grows in rock cracks, and therefore it does not need to be heavily moistened, but it also needs to be protected from drought. You can feed as you wish. 2 times a year: in early spring and after flowering, the thyme is cut off, leaving ⅓ of the woody shoot.

Harvesting: To use the leaves fresh, you can cut them off little by little throughout the year. Cut before flowering begins.

Rosemary

Rosemary is a perennial crop, so it will grow slowly in the first years. It propagates by seeds and cuttings, but you can purchase ready-made seedlings.

Sowing: It is best to grow low-growing varieties on the windowsill: Fragrant, Tenderness, Semko, Veshnyakovsky, Rosinka, Richard. It is best to sow in spring. At first you will need a small container. Rosemary likes loose soil, so the soil for seedlings (or garden soil) needs to be mixed with sand; if you forget to water, carefully add hydrogel to the mixture.

The seeds germinate poorly and take a long time. To speed things up, you can soak them in a damp cloth or cloth for a couple of days. They are then placed in damp soil and do not cover with soil. Place the container covered with glass or film in a dark place and wait 2 weeks for shoots to appear. After this, the container is moved to a bright and cool (18 - 20 degrees) place. Slightly grown plantings need to be replanted. The root system of the plant is highly branched, so the optimal pot depth is 20 cm and width is 25.

Cuttings and planting: To obtain cuttings, select semi-lignified branches. The top is cut off at a height of 8–10 cm, the bottom is cleared of leaves and placed in water, where Kornevin and similar substances can be added. In a couple of weeks, the roots will appear, which means it’s time to plant them in the ground. The soil, prepared as indicated above, is moistened, the plant is buried 3 cm and covered with a film in the hole. You can remove the cover as soon as the first leaves grow (this will take about another month), preferably gradually.

Care: In the warm season, the bush feels good at 20 - 25 degrees, and in winter the temperature needs to be reduced to 15. But the plant needs more light even at this time, so it is advisable to place it on the south, south-east or south-west side, or install a light bulb nearby. From time to time it needs to be turned to form a uniform bush. In the summer, it is good to take the plant out onto the balcony or plant it on the plot.

Watering is required regularly, but in no case excessive. The soil must not be allowed to dry out. Water is only suitable if it has stood for 24 hours, at room temperature. In summer, water at least 2 times a week. In winter and during flowering, this should be done less often, but at the same time make sure that the soil does not dry out from the batteries. It is advisable to spray young shoots that are just growing green mass.

At the very beginning of growth, if the soil was not very fertile when planting, the plants can be fed with mineral fertilizers. Rosemary also loves honey - 1 teaspoon per liter of water.

Every year for the first 5 years, rosemary is transplanted into a larger pot. Then replanting is required every 3 years, but the top layer of soil must be changed.

Stagnant air or excess humidity in the room can cause powdery mildew, and too dry air contributes to the appearance of spider mites and aphids. You can treat rosemary with Fitoverm or tobacco dust.

Harvesting: The aromatic seasoning is obtained during pruning of the plant. It is correct to leave at least ⅔ of the young shoots on the bush, otherwise the plant will weaken. Proper pruning, on the contrary, stimulates growth.

Lavrovishnya

Finally, I’ll tell you about one more good, although not herbaceous, seasoning. We are talking about cherry laurel. While residents of the Krasnodar Territory pull it out like a weed, other Russians are forced to buy leaves in a store or bring them from the south. I once bought 2 rooted cuttings in Adler, and for several years in a row my parents plucked the fragrant seasoning directly from the pot.

Cherry laurel is propagated in three ways: cuttings, layering and seeds. The first one is the most difficult. It is much easier to grow a bush by layering: the branch is bent to the ground, buried, and after a while, when independent roots form in the mound, the young plant is separated from the mother plant. But I will not dwell in detail on the vegetative propagation of cherry laurel, because readers who will grow a bush on a windowsill are unlikely to live in southern latitudes and have access to bushes.

Sowing: Cherry laurel seeds are best planted immediately after harvest. If you don’t trust store-bought seeds, you can easily find fresh seeds at a planting material exchange club, which is organized in almost every gardening magazine. For sowing, choose a container that is not too deep. You can prepare the soil yourself from a mixture of garden soil and sand. The seeds are placed in moist soil 1 cm deep, then covered with glass and kept at a temperature of 16 - 18 degrees. In the phase of two true leaves, the plants are transplanted into individual pots.

Care: Bushes love warmth. The optimal temperature in the room for them is 20 - 22 degrees, but minor deviations will not hurt. In a hot room, it is advisable to spray with water at room temperature. Cherry laurel tolerates some shading calmly, but due to lack of light it begins to stretch out. Watering is needed regularly, but not excessively. In summer and spring more water is required, but in winter it is enough to water once every one and a half to two weeks. Excess moisture is easy to notice by the falling of the lower leaves.

If the leaves begin to shrink and turn pale, the plant needs feeding. To do this, you can use concentrated liquid fertilizer once a month. Also, for good growth, you need to periodically loosen the soil. Once a year, preferably in the spring, the bush needs to be transplanted into a larger container. Once you reach 5 years of age, this can be done much less frequently. Owners of personal plots can improve the health of the plant by replanting it in open ground for the summer.

Harvesting: In the first year after sowing, cutting off the leaves will not work. In the future, you will have to extract little by little, so it is advisable to plant several bushes at once. As soon as they grow up, you can pinch them off periodically: cherry laurel tolerates pruning well. To form a lush bush, it is advisable to pinch the top of a very young plant (the first 6 leaves).

Afterword

I advise beginners to choose the first 3 plants from this list, and then move on to the rest. The beneficial properties of herbs will eventually inspire you to have a real garden all year round. Have a good harvest and see you again in your home!

Spring holidays are just around the corner, so it's time to prepare decorations that will decorate your home and give a festive spring mood to everyone who lives in it. Helps fill your home with a feeling of spring ornamental grass in pots.

Don't wait for fresh grass to appear outside, but grow it in flower pots. You will need at least a week for it to become nice, thick and quite tall.

Prepare interesting small and not too deep dishes - bowls or cups, baskets, you can even use washed halves of egg shells (placing them in cardboard egg packaging or special stands). You will also need soil, grass or grain seeds (such as lawn grass, cat grass, oats), a spray bottle, and plastic wrap.

Fill these containers with soil and sprinkle the seeds thickly and evenly on top. Carefully moisten the surface with a spray bottle and cover with transparent plastic film. Place them on the window near the radiator - where it is light and warm. Irrigate the crops regularly and generously with water from a spray bottle.

After about 5 days, the seeds will begin to germinate. After 8 days, the grass or cereals should already reach a height of about 8 cm. Now irrigation with water from a spray bottle is no longer enough, start carefully watering the seedlings.

You can use grass or young crops of cereals as a basis for creating a festive atmosphere and spring mood. Place decorative paints or Easter eggs (made of plastic, foam, wood, or painted empty shells from chicken or quail eggs), figurines of chickens or bunnies, and other small decorations that you would like on the edge of the pots so as not to crush the greens, or right in the grass. see around you these days.

This is how you can decorate your home for Easter by placing a flower pot with grass in a basket.

You can also grow grass in a cup - this looks great as an Easter decoration!

Another spring decoration is grass grown in eggshells.

Smile! And may a good mood always be in your heart and in your home!

In order to receive the required amount of vitamins during the cold season, you need vegetables and fresh herbs. Let's learn how to grow healthy crops on the windowsill.

In the cold season, when the body lacks vitamins, leafy vegetables and fresh aromatic herbs will come to your aid. Let's figure out how to grow a crop of these healthy plants on the windowsill in winter.

Healthy harvest on the windowsill

• General agricultural techniques
• Growing greens
• We grow herbs
• Growing leafy vegetables

Buying fresh vegetables at any time of the year is now not a problem. However, when purchasing beautiful-looking cucumbers or tomatoes, parsley, coriander or dill, you must remember that, due to their high nitrate content, they can be harmful to health, and their price in winter can be high.

In addition, at this time, store-bought vegetables have neither taste nor aroma. If you want to pamper yourself with vitamin-rich salads and dishes with the addition of leafy vegetables and herbs at any time of the year, you can organize a small vegetable garden on a windowsill or on a heated loggia.Cucumbers, tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers and even eggplant are grown in apartment conditions. And growing greens and leafy vegetables in the kitchen window in winter is not a problem at all.

What containers can be used for growing

Small beds can be organized using wooden or plastic pallets, boxes, ceramic or plastic pots, as well as clay or plastic bowls available on the farm. The only condition in this case is the presence of holes at the bottom of the container for water drainage.

You can make the boxes yourself from pine or spruce boards. The optimal dimensions of the boxes are as follows: length - 40...50 cm, width - 20...30 cm, height - 12...15 cm. For manufacturing, you can use a board with a thickness of 1 to 1.5 cm. It should be noted that It is not recommended to make boxes from furniture scraps, since high humidity will promote peeling of the coating, and harmful substances can get into the soil, and therefore into the plants.

General agricultural techniques

To get a good harvest of greens and leafy vegetables, you must follow the following rules:

1. At the bottom of any container used, it is necessary to put drainage, which is used as expanded clay, fine gravel or broken brick.
2. It is not recommended to use garden soil to grow greens on the windowsill, as it can be infected with pests that will destroy your entire already small harvest. It is better to purchase a special substrate in the store, especially since it already contains all the components necessary for the growth and development of plants.
3. It must be remembered that plants need light for normal growth, so containers should be placed on southwest, southeast or south windows. In the middle of winter, when daylight hours are very short, it would be good to organize additional lighting. To do this, use fluorescent lamps, which are hung at a height of 50–60 cm from your beds.
4. Greens and leafy vegetables need to be watered regularly as the soil dries out. For irrigation use settled tap water. It must be remembered that crops growing in clay pots require more water than plants “living” in plastic. Beds on southern windows need to be watered more often than on eastern or southwestern ones.
5. Crops growing on a windowsill require regular feeding - once every 1.5–2 weeks. To do this, you can use regular universal fertilizer for indoor flowers.
6. When organizing a vegetable garden on a windowsill, you should remember that the air temperature next to the window is always lower than in the room. Therefore, when there is severe frost outside, it is advisable to remove the beds from the window. This will help prevent the roots from rotting at low temperatures. The optimal temperature for growing green crops on a windowsill is 18–20 degrees.

Growing greens

Of all the variety of greens on the windowsill, the easiest to grow are dill, parsley, green onions and celery.

Dill is an unpretentious plant and does not require special care when growing. It is sown in boxes separately or together with other greens scattered, lightly sprinkled with earth. Shoots appear within one and a half to two weeks, and you can taste fresh greens in about a month.

Parsley can be grown on a windowsill in a variety of ways. Before frost, they dig up several plant bushes in the garden along with a clod of earth and transplant them into a suitable container.

Parsley can be sown by seeds, but there is a certain problem. Essential oils contained in the seeds greatly slow down the germination of this crop. Soaking will help speed up germination - before sowing, the seeds are placed in several layers of gauze and kept for half an hour under warm running water, then soaked for a day.

Parsley is demanding of light and soil moisture. It is necessary to water such beds as they dry out, avoiding waterlogging of the soil. After the emergence of seedlings, the bed needs to be thinned out, leaving the strongest plants at a distance of 3–4 cm from each other.

You can also grow parsley on a windowsill by forcing root crops. To do this, it is necessary to select several short but thick roots (at least two centimeters in diameter), preferably with well-developed petioles. The roots should be planted in well-moistened soil at a distance of 2–3 cm from each other, and four to five centimeters should be left between the rows.

Until the petioles sprout, keep the container in a cool place and water it moderately; after the greenery appears, transfer it to the windowsill. In this way, the first harvest can be obtained in 25–30 days. The most suitable varieties of parsley for growing on a windowsill, which produce a lot of greenery, include: Urozhaynaya, Saharnaya, Bordovinskaya.

It is very easy to grow green onions on the windowsill. This can be done by simply placing the onion in a container of clean water. But this must be done so that its bottom barely touches the surface of the water, otherwise the bulb may rot.

To speed up growth, before planting, the bulbs can be filled with hot water and kept for 12 hours, then remove the husks, cut off the top tail and place in a container for germination. With this growing method, it is necessary to change the water every 1-2 days and regularly rinse the containers, otherwise an unpleasant odor will appear.

Green onions can be grown on a windowsill or in a box with soil. When planting, the bulbs should not be deeply buried. Until the first greenery appears, the containers are kept warm, then moved to the windowsill. Onions, like dill, are not very demanding of light, so the beds can be placed in light shade. It should be noted that you should not break off the first onion feathers that appear, otherwise the growth of greenery will stop.

Celery is grown in the same way as parsley - either by forcing roots or from seeds. When forcing this crop from root crops, it is necessary to select roots with a diameter of at least 5 cm with well-developed petioles. If the root crop is longer than the height of your container, its lower part can be cut off or the roots can be planted at an angle. Care for celery in the same way as parsley, that is, provide good lighting and optimal watering.

We grow herbs

The most commonly used aromatic herbs for growing on a windowsill are watercress, basil, mint and lemon balm.

Watercress is considered the fastest growing crop; after sowing the seeds in moist soil, seedlings appear within 4–5 days. This plant does not require light; it can be grown in shaded corners of the windowsill, on northern or north-eastern windows.

Seeds are planted to a depth of 1 cm and watered well. The first harvest can be harvested in 2-3 weeks. For a garden on a windowsill, the best varieties of watercress are Broadleaf, Curly and Pepper.

The easiest way to grow basil on a windowsill is by transplanting a ready-made bush from the garden, since the seeds of this plant are extremely difficult to germinate. Basil is quite demanding of light and does not respond well to temperature changes, so containers with this crop should be placed on southern windows. It is necessary to water the beds with basil as the top layer of soil dries out. Overwatering has a bad effect on the well-being of the plant.

Mint and lemon balm are grown on the windowsill in two ways - by sowing seeds or transplanting bushes from the garden. Seeds should be planted shallowly in well-moistened soil. These crops are demanding on watering and lighting. With sufficient soil moisture, seedlings appear quickly, after which containers with mint and lemon balm are transferred to well-lit southern or south-eastern windows.

Growing leafy vegetables

Among the leafy vegetables for gardening on the windowsill, various varieties of lettuce and Chinese cabbage are best suited.

Leaf lettuce is a cold-resistant crop, so it can be grown in apartment conditions on well-insulated loggias or balconies. For such beds, early ripening varieties of lettuce are best suited: Odessa, Red Credo, Lollo Biond and others.

Leaf lettuce seeds are planted in well-moistened soil to a depth of 0.5 cm; seedlings appear within 3–5 days. The first harvest, depending on the variety, can be harvested in 4–5 weeks. This culture is very demanding in terms of watering and lighting. It is necessary to water the salad abundantly, and in the winter months it is necessary to additionally illuminate the beds with fluorescent lamps.

In winter, you can also grow Chinese cabbage on the windowsill. The seeds of this crop are planted to a depth of 0.5–1 cm in furrows at a distance of six to eight centimeters, leaving 3–4 cm between the seeds. The crops are well watered and placed in a warm place for germination. After the first shoots have appeared, the containers are moved to the window.

Chinese cabbage is a short-day crop, so it tolerates light shading well and does not need additional lighting in the winter months. It is necessary to water the cabbage bed sparingly, when the soil is thoroughly dry. It is necessary to use early ripening varieties of Chinese cabbage for growing on the windowsill, the harvest of which can be harvested after 25–30 days after the appearance of the first shoots.

As you can see, growing greens on a windowsill in winter and early spring is not difficult and even a novice gardener can do it. Of course, you won’t get a big harvest, due to the fact that in such conditions you won’t be able to allocate a lot of space for the garden. However, with a minimum of effort and following simple recommendations, you can provide your family with vitamins exactly at the time when they are most needed.published

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If you have any questions on this topic, ask them to the experts and readers of our project.

Each dish has its own herb, leaves and stems that add flavor. All these greens are in demand and are found more and more often on windowsills. Familiar herbs and spices are returning and plants used in the cuisines of different countries are added to them. The list of herbs for cooking in the home garden is large and growing. Those who have some free space in the kitchen or on the windowsill grow aromatic herbs themselves.
Herbs are very popular because they give our favorite foods incredible flavor. In pots, rosemary, basil and other plants also decorate the kitchen. And when you don't have fresh herbs or a wide variety of dry spices to add variety to your cooking, the food doesn't taste very good. Spicy herbs on the windowsill are not exotic; we will consider growing methods below.

Growing herbs at home

Most herbs work well in a small windowsill garden. The easiest way is to sow seedlings in a flower pot and place them on the windowsill near a light source. Plants need: light four to five hours a day and a constant temperature of 18-22 degrees.
Fresh homegrown greens are the perfect base for a delicious dish. How to grow greens if you don’t have a summer house? Those who do not have their own vegetable garden will be without fresh herbal spices. Although there are many different spices on sale, having your own garden on the windowsill is something. In addition to aromas, it lifts the mood with visual perception. Even in the smallest apartment there are ways to realize the dream of having your own herb garden.

Suitable plants

Not every herb is suitable for growing at home. It is best to choose plants that are relatively low maintenance and easy to maintain. If you can't water frequently, choose drought-tolerant varieties. You can also adapt different watering systems during your absence.
Those who live in a poorly lit apartment also need to consider additional lighting or buy shade-loving plants. Garlic and parsley, for example, can grow with little light and are therefore well suited to dark rooms. Parsley grows slowly and it will take a long time before the first harvest. It is better to prune it rather than pull it out by the roots in order to get the next harvest faster.
Oregon, basil and rosemary are also easy to care for. But they require a lot of sun, so it is better to grow them on the south side, where there is a lot of light.
If there is not enough space on the windowsill for plants, you can also find a solution in the form of shelving with built-in lighting.

Multi-tiered solution on the balcony

If you want to grow herbs, transplant the plants immediately after purchase or sow them in large pots. Because often the pots they are sold in at garden centers or supermarkets are too small. Young grass roots do not have enough space to grow fully.
Spicy herbs are used frequently; as a rule, they do not require much water. So, in order to avoid waterlogging of the roots, it is better to use small shards or expanded clay at the bottom of the pots as drainage. Expanded clay absorbs excess water and returns it gradually when the ground is dry. Also, too much heat can damage plants and quickly dry out the soil. It is better not to place pots close to heat sources.
If you don't have time to use or want to dry excess herbs, cut out no more than half so that the other half continues to grow. In this case, you will always have fresh greens.
Do you have a balcony? It is great for growing herbs in the summer.
Do you only add salt and pepper to your dishes as spices? Then you should definitely try fresh herbs. Spicy herbs make it possible to easily and quickly raise your spirits. They give the dish a herbal, spicy and interesting taste and aroma.
Fresh herbs are necessary spices in everyday life: parsley, green onions, dill and other herbs can be quickly collected at any time in the right quantity and chopped into the desired dish. Fresh herbs on the windowsill or in the garden are always at hand and can be harvested according to personal preference. How to use fresh herbs skillfully and what the alternatives are, draw your own conclusion.

Herbs: what's with what?

Those who use fresh herbs in their dishes consume less salt. And salt, as we know, retains water in the body. Due to their high mineral and vitamin content, herbal mixtures make an important contribution to a healthy diet. The valuable ingredients are preserved in most fresh herbs. Before use, it is enough to rinse them under running water without heat treatment.

Herbs commonly used in cooking

• Basil goes well with almost all Mediterranean dishes. It affects appetite and has a detoxifying effect. Fresh leaves can be chewed for fresh breath. Basil comes with green, purple and violet leaves. It belongs to the mint family of plants and gives dishes a piquant, spicy taste and aroma. Used in salads and as a decoration, the velvety leaves look wonderful. Excess basil can be easily frozen: chop the leaves, mix with a little olive oil, seal the jar and freeze.
• Green onions are like a miracle of nature, thin stems emerge almost like from a construction set. Their taste is a little hot. They can be used raw in salads and sauces. If you want to get feathers rich in vitamins, under no circumstances grow onions in water, plant them in the ground!
• Wild garlic is better than regular garlic, it does not smell. The taste of the dish is better with wild garlic. It contains iron, accumulates in the blood, lowers blood pressure and strengthens the heart.
• Savory strengthens the stomach, promotes digestion and invigorates. Savory is often used in legume dishes. It combats the gas-producing side effect of legumes. Savory helps digest starchy foods and game. Whole branches are added to the pot when cooking and achieve a good aroma.

Important! Don't confuse savory with thyme!

• Borage, also known as borage, resembles the taste of cucumber with a hint of onion. It is considered as a diaphoretic, diuretic, and cardiotonic. Contains a lot of potassium, ascorbic acid, organic acids, carotene. It is a substitute for cucumber; it is added to various salads, sauces, hot dishes, and cold vegetable soups. Borago adds a piquant taste to fish, minced meat, and minced meat. It is also used as a flavoring for various drinks.
• Burnet has a mild, cucumber-like flavor that is ideal for herbal sauces and salads. Borage herbs have a similar taste. Applies to fish, drinks and sauces. Young burnet leaves are used for canning. The leaves are used in cooking in soups, salads, egg and fish dishes, cocktails, and drinks. The roots are boiled and used as a side dish. The leaves and roots are brewed as tea.
• Watercress salad tastes very similar to horseradish; to some it reminds a little of radish. It has a savory taste and is used on dairy products, eggs or chicken. It contains a lot of vitamins and strengthens the immune system. There are different types: curly, with narrow and with regular leaves of different ripening periods. It is eaten both raw and with meat dishes. Especially in the West, watercress is widespread. In our country, watercress salad has also become very popular lately.
• Rucolo has a peppery-spicy and sour-fresh taste. Stimulates appetite and digestion. Great for salads, but also for risotto, pasta or fish.
• Dill stimulates appetite and relieves indigestion. It is ideal for cucumbers and fresh fish, especially salted sea fish. Dill has been used since ancient times in cooking and is the most common herb in the kitchen. Harvest time is early summer. It can be dried and frozen. Stores in the freezer throughout the year. The seeds are used in Indian and South American cooking. When salting, we cannot do without this plant. Dill is said to calm the nervous system.
• Parsley is suitable for almost all dishes. It is rich in provitamin, vitamin B, B2 and calcium. Parsley stimulates the kidneys, purifies the blood and aids digestion. Parsley comes in regular and curly varieties. It is compatible with all other spices and goes well with almost any dish. It is often used to decorate dishes, adding a fresh look and rich taste to stews, meats and many other products. Regular parsley has a richer flavor than curly parsley.
• Oregon is used in many sauces. It's hard to imagine Italian pizza and herbal mixtures without it. You can also use a sprig of Oregon with cheese. Even when dried, the aroma remains if stored in a closed jar. Oregon's spicy, slightly tangy flavor lends itself well to salads. Oregano (the second name) has a tart, slightly peppery taste and is used a lot in Italian and Greek cuisine. Promotes appetite and calms nerves.
• Rosemary smells wonderful! The branches are narrow, needle-shaped, reminiscent of a green forest. Rosemary is a versatile herb that goes well with poultry and pork, both for roasting and baking. Contains many essential oils that stimulate appetite. In a pot it gives the feeling of a Mediterranean garden. Rosemary will relieve headaches, calm the nervous system, and have a positive effect on the gastrointestinal tract and bile excretory activity.
• Thyme goes best with meat and potato dishes. Oddly enough, thyme, unlike many other herbs, is stronger than fresh. Thyme has a spicy-sweet taste and its wonderful aroma develops only when cooking. It has a calming, antispasmodic, expectorant effect.
• Tarragon has a high content of essential oils, which have a spicy-bitter taste. It stimulates appetite and the secretion of gastric juice. Used for main dishes of pork, lamb, beef.
• Wormwood is an ideal herb for rich and satisfying dishes, adding piquancy. It stimulates the bile flow and thereby guarantees optimal fat digestion. Only the young upper leaves of wormwood are consumed before flowering. Often used for the production of liqueurs. There are countries where they bake bread with the addition of wormwood and juniper berries.
• Chervil stimulates metabolism, cleanses the blood and removes toxins. It has a slightly spicy flavor with parsley and vanilla aroma, fresh leaves and stems are used for a slightly sweet aroma. It is good for dietary soups, eggs and poultry dishes. Perfectly harmonizes with crabs and even Frankfurt green sauce. In Sweden they produce cognac with fresh chervil and vodka. Chervil is used only in its green form. It should be added to the dish immediately before serving. Chervil greens are a good source of ascorbic acid, protein, vitamin C, glycosides, mineral salts, provitamin A. It lowers blood pressure and improves digestion.
• Coriander is a typical herb for Asian cuisine and has a slight aniseed flavor. It is suitable for creamy dishes, promotes appetite and relieves bloating.
• Lovage is used primarily in soups and stews, confectionery and beverages. Even a small amount can impart a special mushroom flavor to canned food. It has a diuretic effect and is therefore beneficial for the kidneys and bladder. Often used in dietary nutrition.
• Marjoram goes great with meatballs or fried potatoes. It has a particularly calming and relaxing effect on the gastric mucosa. Marjoram is used in almost all German sausages because of its powerful, spicy flavor. And potatoes are wonderful with marjoram. It comes to us from Mediterranean cuisine and can be used for all hearty dishes.
• Mint is suitable as a standard garnish for desserts and mixed drinks, as well as for meat, fish and yogurt sauces. Peppermint essential oils stimulate the secretion of bile and soothe the stomach and intestines. The taste of green leaves refreshes the taste of salads and new potatoes. There are different types of mint, the most famous being peppermint.

Tip: To quench your thirst, brew fresh mint, it’s delicious!

• Dried bay laurel is available in every kitchen. Stewing and preparing sauerkraut is hardly possible without an intense taste. The evergreen bay bush can be grown as a houseplant.
• Nettle is used raw, but scalded briefly to prevent it from stinging. The taste is similar to spinach. Nettle is rich in vitamins, minerals, and is useful in building blood support. Cabbage soup is made from young nettles. Try the nettle dumplings.
• Balsam (Censer Sarmatian), young leaves give yogurt and other dairy products a fresh flavor. Its taste is reminiscent of lemon, although the leaves are similar to nettles. Censer lemon balm is added to various drinks and balms.

Mint and thyme can also be added to tea for taste and as a garnish for various drinks. Herbs not only look beautiful, but they also taste great in food. As you can see, many herbs have healing and health benefits. You decide what kind of grass to grow on your windowsill based on your own preferences. Remember that in nature the greenery is caressed by the wind. Do not place pots too tightly so as not to interfere with air movement.
For those who read the article to the end, a recipe for a special oil.

Homemade herb oil

You might have seen oils with herbs on store shelves. They are not cheap. You can easily make your own herb oil. Simply add the desired aromatic herbs to the oil bottle and leave to ripen in a dark place for 4 to 6 weeks. You can use a variety of fresh or dried herbs and create an oil to suit your taste. Fresh herbs contain more flavor than dried herbs because the essential oils are lost during drying.

Oils with various herbs

When planning to master growing herbs on a windowsill in winter, autumn and spring, lovers of indoor garden beds consider three undisputed leaders: dill, parsley and green onions.

These plants are suitable as seasonings for many dishes. They gained their popularity due to their ease of care, versatility and taste. How to grow popular and not so popular herbs in the kitchen with your own hands, what to pay attention to so that the harvest is pleasing to the eye and taste?

You can grow almost any greenery on the windowsill in your apartment. The main thing is to choose the right variety and comply with the plant’s requirements for soil composition, air humidity, watering, and temperature conditions.

Important:

• Choose unpretentious varieties, or better yet, hybrids specially bred for indoor conditions. This will simplify care and increase the chances of a harvest. If you are not confident in your abilities and want to get quick results, buy not seeds, but ready-made seedlings in pots.
• Practical pots for herbs on the windowsill should have a rectangular shape. Take wide and shallow dishes. Plastic containers are quite suitable; they are light and easy to clean. Ideal for reusable use. Read more about choosing containers.
• Buy light, well-drained soil for your greens. You can prepare a mixture of vermicompost and coconut fiber. The proportion should be 1:2. Be sure to add a layer of small stones, expanded clay, crushed polystyrene foam, or other drainage to the bottom of the pot.
• If the window is cool or drafty, use plastic covers to create mini-greenhouses. You can buy ready-made ones or make them from a bag yourself.
• The optimal daylight hours for green pets are 10-13 hours. In winter there is not enough light, especially on the north side. To illuminate the greenery on the windowsill, install lamps; it is better to buy fluorescent or special phytolamps. Ordinary lamps will not work.

• Do not neglect fertilizing; select mineral fertilizer complexes for watering once every 2-3 weeks. But make the solution less concentrated than for open ground.
• Every other day or more often, spray green pets with a fine spray, especially if the air in the apartment is dry.
• Do not be lazy to turn the pots on different sides towards the light so that the plant develops evenly.
• To grow greenery, it is better to allocate a window sill in the kitchen to your apartment. The bedroom is not the best place for frequent watering, spraying and applying fertilizers. In the bathroom, herbs will look ridiculous; for its landscaping, they are more appropriate.

If you don't want to limit yourself to just greens, then check out our organization and design tips and find out what else you can grow in your city apartment all year round. However, for beginners it is best start with herbs And . Plants that are difficult to cultivate can disappoint with the results and discourage the process.

Requirements of different greens

Before you go to the store for seeds or seedlings, learn how to grow different types of greens on a windowsill, and choose the simplest and most affordable option for you.

How to grow parsley on a window

To grow parsley in pots, you need a mixture of one part peat, the same amount of humus and twice the volume of garden soil, disinfected with a solution of potassium permanganate. But it’s easier to buy ready-made universal primer.

When choosing seeds, give preference to early, quickly ripening varieties. This information is indicated on the packaging. Low-grade species and curly parsley look beautiful. It is important that the selected variety can easily tolerate frequent pruning, because you will constantly be picking leaves to decorate dishes.

Optimal varieties for indoor conditions:

• Appetizing;
• Vorozheya;
• Aster;
• Gloria;
• Nastenka;
• Station wagon;
• Russian feast.

To increase the germination of parsley, experienced gardeners advise keeping the seeds warm in a damp cloth for two or three days. Then you need to squeeze out the excess water, place the cloth with the seeds in a bag and put it in the refrigerator for several days.

Basic rules for growing parsley on a windowsill:

1. Choose containers for planting with a height of at least 15 cm.
2. When planting, be sure to maintain a distance between holes of at least 5 cm.
3. Bury the seeds to a depth of 0.7-1.4 mm.
4. Immediately after sowing, cover the pot with film or a special plastic greenhouse and place it on a lighted windowsill.
5. Provide a temperature of 17-21 degrees.
6. Moisten the crops, but not too much, otherwise mold will form. Remove the film every day, allowing air access.
7. With proper care, parsley shoots will appear in one and a half to two weeks. The film can be removed.
8. Water your greens two to three times a week. Provide additional food once a month.
9. The optimal temperature for indoor parsley is 15-18 °C during the day and 10-12 °C at night.
10. Make sure that the greens are not attacked by pests. Spider mites often spread from other plants to parsley.

When harvesting, try not to tear off the tops, but thin out rows. This will improve the conditions for further growth.

Features of growing dill in an apartment

When choosing what greens you can grow on the windowsill in winter, pay attention to dill - the second most popular spice in the kitchen.

To enjoy the summer aroma within a month, buy varieties with rapid ripening: Gribovsky, Karusel, Early Miracle, Aurora, Grenadier. You can plant varieties with different ripening periods on the same windowsill, so that you can use the early ones first, and then switch to the late ones, which just have time to grow.

1. To select good seeds, soak them in warm water for two days, changing the water to fresh water every 12 hours. Throw away everything that floats mercilessly, and use the rest of the material for planting.
2. Moisten the soil in the pots and make holes 1-1.5 cm deep, leaving gaps of about 4 cm.
3. Fill the top with soil, sprinkle with water and cover with plastic, as described above for parsley.
4. Place in a warm place (18 to 20 degrees) and protected from sunlight for a week.
5. When the shoots appear, remove the film and place the pot of herbs on the windowsill. If there seem to be a lot of sprouts, thin out, leaving about 3 cm of space around each sprout.
6. Water as the soil dries out. It is better to use a spray bottle as an assistant so as not to damage the young shoots.
7. Turn the pot with different sides to the sun so that the dill grows evenly.
8. Fertilize once every 30-45 days.

Fragrant basil on the window

Basil is another popular choice for growing fresh herbs on a windowsill in a city apartment. There are many varieties of basil in nature, but only a few dozen are suitable for human consumption. The leaves of the plant are used in cooking; they are ideal for salads, meat dishes, and marinades.

The best varieties for the room are:

• Marquis – distinguished by its compactness and beautiful ball shape;
• Dwarf is a low bush, there are species with greenery with a purple tint;
• Clove – attracts with its pleasant aroma and high decorative value.
• Lemon – delicate lemon aroma and crown with beautiful light green leaves.
• Purple is a bright bush with large leaves.

Basil seeds are different long germination. To speed up the process, keep the seed in a warm place for 10-14 days, then soak in warm water for a day. Discard any floating specimens.

1. Make holes in the soil and plant the seeds about 3 cm apart. There is no need to make large gaps, since not all crops will sprout.
2. To speed up germination, make a polyethylene greenhouse. The plant loves light and warmth - provide a temperature of 25 ° C.
3. Moisten the mini-bed as it dries.
4. Once the basil has sprouted, thin out the excess so that there is 5cm of space around each plant.
5. Place on a well-lit windowsill and regularly care for the plantings - water, turn, fertilize, loosen the soil. Heat water for irrigation to 30 °C.
6. Basil loves light, so be sure to install a lamp on the windowsill for illumination and provide at least 15 hours of daylight.

For culinary purposes pick leaves from the tops of the bush. This will prevent flowering, which makes the grass unedible.

The ideal lettuce variety for growing at home

When planning to plant greens on the windowsill for the first time, pay attention to watercress. This is one of the most unpretentious and fastest-germinating plants. Watercress seeds do not require long soaking, and the seedlings are resistant to temperature fluctuations and light. The best varieties: Pepper, Ordinary, Broad-leaved, Curly.

1. To get a bountiful harvest, soak watercress seeds in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for a couple of hours.
2. Create good drainage at the bottom of the pot and fill it with flower soil from a bag or a mixture of two parts coconut fiber and one part vermicompost.
3. Prepare holes 5-10 mm deep, sow basil and fill the holes with soil. Moisten and cover with film.
4. The first micro-greens on the windowsill will appear in a week. Keep the pot at a temperature of 17-20 degrees.
5. The higher the temperature, the more abundant the watering should be.

Watercress is one of the most unpretentious plants; it can be grown without any soil at all. Some people do it right in the water, while others do it on foam rubber. But greenery looks more attractive in a pot on the kitchen windowsill.

How to quickly get onion greens in winter

To grow onion greens at home on a windowsill, you can use two options - in soil in a pot and in water. The second method is fast and familiar to everyone since childhood. You just need to fill the glasses with water and place the bulbs in them. It is better to take those that have already begun to germinate.

The nuances of growing l uka in the water:

1. The water should be warm - about 40 degrees.
2. If the bulb has not yet begun to sprout, it is recommended to cut off the top by 1.5 cm.
3. Only the roots should be in the water; the bulb should not be immersed more than one-third.

By the way, you can grow it at home in the same way and get a beautiful tree.

Instead of cans, it is convenient to use egg cartons or special pots for growing onions at home. This is a container with holes for the bulbs. It looks neat and beautiful on the windowsill.

Growing green onions in the ground takes longer and is more difficult. Use bulbs for planting, since you may not get a harvest from the seeds at all.

Watch the video for the process of planting bulbs on greens in a bottle.

Fragrant mint in the home kitchen

An excellent choice for the home is mint with a wonderful aroma. Mint is a perennial plant that is easy to grow on a windowsill using root cuttings or seeds. The second method will take more time, but will bring more pleasure.

Peat or loose humus soil with an acidity of no more than 5-6 pH is suitable for growing mint. Feel free to buy universal primer in the store and don’t worry. The ideal temperature is 18-25 degrees. To the plant good lighting required.

1. You need to divide the bush in the fall after the growing season has ended. Carefully divide the rhizomes so that each portion contains shoots with dormant buds.
2. Fill the pots two-thirds full with nutrient soil.
3. Carefully distribute the seedlings and sprinkle them with soil.
4. Pour in warm water.

The first leaves should appear in about two weeks.

If you bought a bunch of fresh mint, then try to obtain planting material using the method cuttings. Just place a few branches in water, dipping them in a root stimulator (root formation). The roots will appear in 8-14 days. All that remains is to plant the seedlings in pots.

1. It is better to sow mint seeds for growing on a windowsill in mid-spring.
2. Fill the pot with soil, prepare holes 0.5 cm deep and moisten the soil.
3. Sow the seeds and sprinkle a small amount of the same soil on top.
4. Cover with a film greenhouse.
5. At a temperature of 19-25 degrees, seedlings will appear a couple of weeks after sowing.
6. Control the moisture of the soil, do not allow drying out and excessive humidity. Water by spraying to avoid washing away the crops.

When growing mint in winter, do not overwater. Let the soil dry out slightly. Avoid drafts. In summer, water more deeply, but protect fresh greens from excess direct sunlight. If conditions permit, use mint to create a fragrant atmosphere in your home.

What else can you grow on a windowsill in an apartment?

When planning to grow herbs on a windowsill in winter, you can choose almost any type of fast-growing herbaceous plant. Oregano and sage perform well in apartments; they are not demanding of light and can withstand partial shade.

The unpretentious one causes little trouble fragrant lemon balm. Melissa seeds just need to be sown in the soil to a depth of 0.5 cm without pre-soaking, watered and moistened regularly. The greens will hatch within a few days. Melissa loves light; its lack reduces the production of essential oils that give the leaves their aroma.

Requires care, but looks very original on the window celery. The easiest way to get celery greens is in water. Simply trim the root part from the stem and leave it in a container of water in a sunny place. In a few days, new shoots and roots will appear. You can transplant the plant into soil or leave it in water. Trim green leaves as needed and care for your pet if replanted.

Green seeds cost pennies. Try and experiment with different types and planting options. Create your own spicy mini-vegetable garden to the delight of yourself and the envy of passers-by looking in the windows. And for greater effect decorate pots with your own hands, using . This way you can save a lot on purchasing containers.

By making it your hobby to grow herbs on your windowsill at home, you will have fun, decorate your kitchen, and always have herbs on hand for salads and soups. This hobby is ideal for spending time together with children and husband. Have a good harvest all year round!