Herb and Flower Mix for Windowbox

18 years ago

Hello everybody and it's nice to be back in the gardening season! Of course where would I be without this forum and once again I need to call on my fellow green thumbs for suggestions on planting. I am installing a windowsill garden outside my bedroom window and so far I have some fantastic herbs growing in a temporary container (rosemary, oregano, basil, both regular and lemon thyme plus two kinds of parsley). It looks fantastic however as I get ready to cut herbs for use it occured to me that I will end up with huge gaps in my box. I considered snipping only the tall ones and leaving the shorter intact but this seems rather tedious. I think I would rather split up the herbs and mix flowers inbetween to help distract from the resulting spaces. I don't know if this helps but my windowsill is about 42" in length so the actual cedar "box" will probably be about 36-40" when it's finished. Also, it's a southern exposure with about five hours of sunlight and I do enjoy the idea of incorporating some trailing plants as well. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks so much for all your help (it's why I keep coming back) :-)

Comments (5)

DRKboss
18 years ago
Howdy smelly cat40,

One method that you might consider is to use a container inside a container.

Depending on the size of your windowbox, you can put in containers like a 5-inch by 5-inch by 6-inch deep square pot. This is plenty large to grow a head of lettuce, parseley, rosemary, dill, oregano, etc.

You can then take the pots and rearrange them as you trim them. You can also move them around to take advantage of higher sunlight on one side than the other or to even the growth.

You can also rotate new starter plants in as the older ones start to bolt.

Many growers put growrocks in the bottom of the planter to raise the height of the inner container.

You also have the option of watering some herbs less or more than others beacause each kind is in its own container. You can also use different fertilizer schedules for the different inner containers.

It is also possible to grow many herbs in deep square containers like 3-inch by 3-inch by 4-inch deep or 4-inch by 4-inch by 5-inch deep. Depending on how wide your windowbox is, you can sometimes double up the square containers.

If you can double up the containers, as you trim your herbs, you can move them around so that one set of green fills in the holes of the trimmed herbs.

By the way, what are they feeding you? It's not your fault.
smelly_cat40
Original Author
18 years ago
Wow, I can't believe I never even considered this. I was about to just make three 12" planters. Now I will revamp the entire project and try to find some suitable containers. So if you don't mind further questions, what types of flowers would you mix in with these herbs? I suppose something that could take full sun but I really don't know where to begin since there are so many types out there.

By the way, they feed me sardines...
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jenny_in_se_pa
18 years ago
If the weather cooperates, you may not have the blank spaces that you think you will have. The basil can get pretty tall and wide, the oregano and parsley very wide and sprawly, the lemon tyme is a creeper and will be like a little ground cover, the regular thyme similar but more prostrate, and the rosemary may be the only one that stays pretty intact and will gradually grow larger if it likes where it is.

You could try other "edibles" in there like nasturtiums (they would be goregous if they like where they are), maybe slap some marigolds in there for good measure (seems to be a popular one for herb beds).
RoseRustler
18 years ago
One mixture that I love..curly parsley and white daisies. Of course you will want a variety of daisies appropriate to the depth of container that you have. This arrangement can be perennial and the parsley will stay green even in icy weather. Marge
gunther_arneson
16 years ago
I would like to know what would be a good mix of plants to have in a San Francisco window box. The weather in October is a bit wet (the beginning of the rainy season) and hovers in the 60s in the day time and 50s at night. There is a lot of shade from tall buildings nearby.