Salads and herbs can be grown indoors all winter if given enough protection from the cold. Look for cut and come again loose leaf varieties that will rebloom several times after being harvested.
Pea shoots are simple to grow using whole dried peas soaked in water overnight – a windowsill is an ideal spot to give them a try!
Chives
Growing chives on your windowsill garden is easy even in regions with harsh winters. Seeds should be planted 6-8 weeks prior to the last frost date in spring or purchased rooted clumps from your local nursery. Chives thrive indoors when exposed to natural sunlight or supplemented with artificial lights – be sure to plant in containers filled with well-draining potting soil!
Chives are easy to grow, but if you want the best from your plants, consider growing common chives (Allium schoenoprasum). It produces flowers resembling green confetti that add color and mild onion flavor to salads. Conversely, garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) feature flat leaves with white flowers that taste more of garlic than onions; both options can be purchased from most seed companies.
Outdoor planting requires loosening soil to a depth of 6-8 inches (15-20 cm), mixing in some organic matter to enhance texture and fertility, then sowing seeds evenly on top of the surface without covering. Once done, make sure the area stays moist by watering regularly until germination occurs – typically 7-14 days later.
As chives tend to form large clumps when planted in your garden, it is crucial that they are spaced out properly. This ensures optimal growth. Chives make great companion plants for many cool-season vegetables such as carrots, kale and lettuce as they deter pests away while drawing pollinators who help ensure successful pollination.
As an added benefit, chives can be harvested throughout the year – perfect if your outdoor space is limited – providing you with fresh chive blossoms to add fresh chive flavor in soups, eggs and other dishes year round. Plus you can infuse chives into vinegar to give homemade vinaigrettes beautiful purple hues!
As soon as your chives begin to flower, they have reached maturity and should be harvested. You can either let the flowers dry out for garnishing purposes or use them in cooking, but by picking off these blooms before they go to seed you’ll help promote leaf growth and help encourage further blossoming of your plants.
Parsley
Parsley plants make a delicious winter windowsill salad addition. Though this hardy herb thrives outdoors in hoop tunnels and containers, indoor cultivation allows you to harvest nonstop throughout winter’s chillier months – even just moving an existing pot into your house can prove more successful than starting new seeds from seed!
If your parsley plant needs repotting, dig it up and pot into all-purpose potting soil before placing on a sunny windowsill and watering regularly. If it grows too tall, prune back as needed to maintain bushiness of leaves. As parsley can be tough, harvest leaves in small quantities frequently to avoid exhausting it too soon.
One way of growing parsley during wintertime is to put its seedlings into extra-cozy containers lined with dry oak leaves or another insulating material, like row cover. This will help the plants withstand frost better and extend harvests. Parsley can also thrive all winter in a cool greenhouse or under row cover in garden beds – especially beneficial if its variety, such as Moss Curled Parsley, is susceptible to bolting (flowering and setting seed quickly) when temperatures heat up – such as “Moss Curled Parsley”.
If growing parsley and other herbs indoors from seeds, make sure your seed starting mix contains high-quality non-GMO seed to get more germination and higher quality plants. Also search the Gardening Know How Shop for organically grown seeds as this will reduce risk of weeds or pests entering your house.
Starting the seeds indoors mid-autumn, then moving outside as the temperatures begin to decrease, is best practice when starting from seed. Soaking the seeds in warm (30-36C) water for 12 hours before planting will accelerate germination by approximately 25% – something particularly helpful if growing plants commercially such as in restaurants.
Cilantro
Growning salad greens and herbs is an easy and rewarding way to ensure delicious food throughout winter. While greenhouses, cold frames, cloches can extend harvest seasons for many crops, they cannot protect you from frigid temperatures when picking the leaves – many cool season salad vegetables thrive beautifully on sunny windowsills!
Cilantro is one of the easiest crops to cultivate indoors, particularly when grown as microgreens or sprouts rather than full-grown plants. Harvestable shoots appear within just days requiring only a jar with lid and certified-pathogen-free cilantro seeds; make sure you plant these at least a quarter inch deep into seed starting mix for best results.
Before sprouting the seeds, they need to be soaked for half a day in water before placing them under direct sunlight for several hours every other day until harvesting is possible. This process may be repeated several times throughout the winter for continuous cilantro sprouts production.
Arugula is another salad vegetable that will thrive as part of a winter windowsill garden. Like its counterpart arugula, this herb tends to bolt (bloom and produce seed heads) when temperatures warm up during the summer; so bringing it indoors during the winter ensures you will always have access to leafy green goodness! Make sure the plants receive direct sunlight, supplement their light source as necessary with grow lights, and keep an eye out for pests; although most indoor herbs and salad greens tend to be relatively resistant.
Herbs
Fresh herbs are invaluable, while growing your own salad makes life even sweeter! While cultivating an entire garden requires time and care, indoor microgreens or herbs that are easy to grow can keep you cooking all winter long – and make for an excellent weekend project that may involve even your kids!
As temperatures fall and days shorten, vegetables often wilt and die off in response to shorter daylight. But this doesn’t need to be the case! Certain vegetables, like herbs, can actually flourish on sunny windowsills throughout winter with only minimal protection – like using a cloche or making your own mini version by simply placing an upside-down plastic bottle over top of a pot on your windowsill.
Windowsill salad gardening requires herbs that are best suited to windowsill gardening such as chives, parsley and cilantro. All three can be purchased as plants at supermarkets, rooted out and cared for until spring arrives to plant out again in their new environment. Cilantro in particular works particularly well due to its zesty, slightly peppery flavour and resistance against bolting (flowering and setting seed).
As well as these herbs, try sowing a mixture of others, such as basil and mint, in your windowsill salad garden. They can even be purchased as plants from supermarkets to ensure long-term production indoors! It’s much cheaper than purchasing them directly from garden centres – and just as tasty!
Sowing seeds directly onto a windowsill garden requires selecting high quality seed starting mix and planting the seeds 1/4 inch deep, watering well afterward and keeping the soil moist but not soggy. For an easier and quicker solution, gently splitting up supermarket herbs like chives or parsley into individual leaves before sowing into your windowsill planter can work effectively; just ensure it has enough drainage holes at its base and drip tray below so your seedlings won’t become waterlogged too quickly.
