Growing on roadside windowsills

vintageteainmywardrobe

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice and when I google it I never really get an answer. I live in a terraced cottage which fronts onto a road. It's not a massively busy road but it is used regularly and I was wondering whether I could use the three windows to grow extra fruit or veg? I know a lot of people in London grow fruit and veg in windows/balconies near roads but really unsure.

If I can does anyone have any ideas on what would be best. My front faces south east, but tends to not get that much sun because the houses in front of it darken the front, if that makes sense. They are taller than I am.

Any help would be really great.

unrecordings

vintageteainmywardrobe wrote: »

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice and when I google it I never really get an answer. I live in a terraced cottage which fronts onto a road. It's not a massively busy road but it is used regularly and I was wondering whether I could use the three windows to grow extra fruit or veg? I know a lot of people in London grow fruit and veg in windows/balconies near roads but really unsure.

If I can does anyone have any ideas on what would be best. My front faces south east, but tends to not get that much sun because the houses in front of it darken the front, if that makes sense. They are taller than I am.

Any help would be really great.

At ground floor level I'd definitely not, first floor probably not, second floor, depends, etc...

shortcrust

Yes, it wouldn’t bother me for a moment. Just give the stuff a wash before you eat it. I wonder if people who get squeamish about stuff like that have ever driven through France or Spain on busy motorways with fruit crops on either side. It’s not like the fruit and veg we eat has all been grown in some car free rural idyll.

unrecordings

shortcrust wrote: »

Yes, it wouldn’t bother me for a moment. Just give the stuff a wash before you eat it. I wonder if people who get squeamish about stuff like that have ever driven through France or Spain on busy motorways with fruit crops on either side. It’s not like the fruit and veg we eat has all been grown in some car free rural idyll.

Squeamish ?
Not me, but that's just my personal opinion, and I can only imagine the OP's situate - which potentially puts the fruit (for the sake of argument) maybe 2m from an angry exhaust pipe. And you can't just wash off the stuff that leaches into the soil and gets taken up by the roots into that fruit. OP intends to eat 100% of that stuff.

For the stuff grown commercially that you've quite correctly pointed out, that got me thinking - my original argument would have been that had the OP bought a nice pack of something from the supermarket, grown outdoors, as you say in France, then they wouldn't be eating 100% of stuff grown in close proximity to the road (say 20 fruits from a field of millions) - but with modern picking & packing techniques, maybe that would be exactly not the case..?

Anyway, back to the OP - I wouldn't, others would - voting currently a tie

Davesnave

vintageteainmywardrobe wrote: »

My front faces south east, but tends to not get that much sun because the houses in front of it darken the front, if that makes sense. They are taller than I am.

If the houses across the road are taller than your house, (not you, surely?) and cast shade, won't growing plants in front of your windows just darken the inside of your house even more?

There are health and mental health issues around lack of light as well, never mind the diesel particulates etc.

vintageteainmywardrobe

Hello all, Thank you. Eh the house is dark, not super dark but as it only get's most of the sun in the morning it is a put a lamp on in the afternoon kind of house. Upstairs in the bedroom facing the front it is generally fine, but after lunch the sun moves to the rear. I wouldn't be growing anything that could potential take away a lot of light from the inside of the house. I have quite tall sliding sash windows. My rear garden faces south west/north, it's south facing and it's great but super small It's a proper terraced garden. I'm hoping to get the most out of it but thought I would see if I could just grow extra on the windowsills.

I never thought of the France thing, I guess that is kind off where I was with regards to houses in London growing on windowsills.

I'm just looking at being more self-sufficient and thinking of the environment. You cannot get a lot of fruit and veg over here outside of packaging.

Thank you for the replies they are really helpful!

unrecordings

Something I've considered in previous houses with good old fashioned high ceilings/sash windows is an internal shelf above the sash (assuming it's opening bottom/fixed upper)

That way you can scratch that grow your own itch and add/remove pots of whatever to suit the seasons, light, etc.
Obviously I'm thinking about things like herbs, chillis, maybe potted salad, but you could get creative with maybe some peas or tumbling cherry tomatoes

Back to the pollution thing, with the rise of electric vehicles, who thinks the pollution argument in this thread will be a moot point in say ten/twenty years ?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I'd go for herbs - mint does well (and it keeps it away from hitting bare soil and taking over the entire back garden), rosemary, coriander, lavender, thyme, sage, Nasturtiums - things that grow in Mediterranean/dry climates. And onions tend to bolt, but the flowers are pretty attractive anyway.

They're also less likely to get pinched by passers-by, although that's not guaranteed, going by the times I've had to 'encourage' people loitering by them to tell me what they want when I've seen them up at the window. :mad:


It's good for you to see greenery - herbs also give scent and attract bees when flowering - so I'd take being able to see and smell those over blocking out the light with tomatoes that will get stripped by somebody whilst you're out at work.

Farway

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I'd go for herbs - mint does well (and it keeps it away from hitting bare soil and taking over the entire back garden), rosemary, coriander, lavender, thyme, sage, Nasturtiums - things that grow in Mediterranean/dry climates. And onions tend to bolt, but the flowers are pretty attractive anyway.

They're also less likely to get pinched by passers-by, although that's not guaranteed, going by the times I've had to 'encourage' people loitering by them to tell me what they want when I've seen them up at the window. :mad:


It's good for you to see greenery - herbs also give scent and attract bees when flowering - so I'd take being able to see and smell those over blocking out the light with tomatoes that will get stripped by somebody whilst you're out at work.

Good idea, and a lot of passersby will not recognise a fresh real herb, and those that do will only be nicking a bit, sort of involuntary pruning

vintageteainmywardrobe

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I'd go for herbs - mint does well (and it keeps it away from hitting bare soil and taking over the entire back garden), rosemary, coriander, lavender, thyme, sage, Nasturtiums - things that grow in Mediterranean/dry climates. And onions tend to bolt, but the flowers are pretty attractive anyway.

They're also less likely to get pinched by passers-by, although that's not guaranteed, going by the times I've had to 'encourage' people loitering by them to tell me what they want when I've seen them up at the window. :mad:


It's good for you to see greenery - herbs also give scent and attract bees when flowering - so I'd take being able to see and smell those over blocking out the light with tomatoes that will get stripped by somebody whilst you're out at work.

Thank you :j

I'm rather lucky that technically the only people passing in front of my house should be my next door neighbours :rotfl:. I will defiantly look into herbs though as you always need them!! I also love onion flowers, I sometimes think I could just grow them for that.

falcieri

vintageteainmywardrobe wrote: »

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice and when I google it I never really get an answer. I live in a terraced cottage which fronts onto a road. It's not a massively busy road but it is used regularly and I was wondering whether I could use the three windows to grow extra fruit or veg? I know a lot of people in London grow fruit and veg in windows/balconies near roads but really unsure.

If I can does anyone have any ideas on what would be best. My front faces south east, but tends to not get that much sun because the houses in front of it darken the front, if that makes sense. They are taller than I am.

Any help would be really great.

I am in a first floor flat with no window boxes. My own front door opens out onto the front however and I have a small patch of paved ground a couple of metres square separated from a moderately busy road by a low wall. I have lots of pots and troughs out the front. I have grown a few things from scratch including leeks, tomatoes, peas and spring onions. And then for the rest I grow cut and come again which I can also grow indoors on my windowsills in pots or glasses of water. For that I've got spring onions, leeks, fennel, peppermint, basil and lettuces. Two for the price of one! It's definitely saving me money and it's fun. I miss having a garden dreadfully and this way I get to see greenery all around me and save a few quid too and I'm able to grow a few things which I can eat which is pretty satisfying.