Saturday Spot: Se7en Things in Our Windowsill Garden Right Now…

My mom always had a row of pretty little African Violets and avocado pips growing on her windowsill and somehow I am sure that kitchen windowsills are meant for collections of little plants!!! When we built onto our house I wanted really wide windowsills for making a windowsill garden… needless to say the builders were not listening that day (or most days for that matter!!!).

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And our windowsill garden lives on a tray… which is actually quite nice because it is easy to follow the sun. Really all you need to get going is a couple of glass jars and their lids. And a sunny spot… and a resident waterer who is neither over-enthusiatic or forgetful. Every now and then we have a total refresh and start over, we lose anything that may no longer be growing – for one reason or another… and clean out the jars and start afresh. And then we watch it grow for a couple of months and repeat the process!!!

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For the last couple of weeks our windowsill garden has been growing away:

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This is what we have been growing…

  1. Avocado Pips and African Violet Leaves: Just to carry on the tradition.
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  3. Pineapples: We always have a pineapple growing on the windowsill and here’s how. You start with a pineapple that has a nice leafy top… on top!!! And here is the best part: smash the top against the edge of a table. The stem will break off!!!
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    Eat the fruit and save the stem.

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    Place the top onto a water filled jar so that it fits snugly.

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    And wait and watch. After a couple of days you will get a few roots.

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    And after a few weeks you will have a huge pineapple plant!!!

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  5. Carrot tops and Beetroot tops: Gather up some root vegetables.
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    The weirder the better…

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    Chop off the tops.

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    And pop the tops into a jar lid… keep them watered…

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    And vegetables that appeared to be old and tired will spring into life – literally!!!

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  7. Sweet Potatoes: Place a sweet potato into a dark cupboard for a couple of days and leave it there to grow a couple of shoots. When you take it out of the cupboard it will have no green leaves, bit give it a couple of days and all the little pale leaves will become green.
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    Give it a couple of weeks and something to climb and it will become a jungle!!!

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  9. Beans: Everyone know how to grow beans!!! I keep a steady supply going because they are so handy for explaining so many things and everyone enjoys having a jar of beans on the grow…
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  11. Flowers: I aways keep one or two fresh flowers there… as the seasons change so do the flowers and they are fantastic for exploring with a magnifying glass. And toss some damp bread into a petri dish and for a couple of days and you will have a nice moldy growth to examine more closely…
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  13. Mould: Just toss some damp bread into a covered petri dish and for a couple of days and you will have a nice moldy growth to examine more closely… (Sorry, no picture right now!!!).
  14. And the Se7en + 1th Thing:

  15. Finally We are Growing a Microbe Biosphere: We followed the steps from the Magnifying Glass:
  16. Week One: Find All your ingredients.

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    Week Two: Put it All Together

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    Week Three: Observation Week 1

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    Week Four: Observation Week 2

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    And for now we are just watching and waiting…

So that’s our windowsill garden… Tell us if you are growing something interesting on your windowsill… we would love to be inspired!!!

25 Replies to “Saturday Spot: Se7en Things in Our Windowsill Garden Right Now…”

  1. Wow! I had NO idea you could do that with a pineapple. Thank you for sharing!

  2. Right now we’re growing various sprouts, forget-me-nots and another flowering plant that my girls planted the seeds for last Mother’s Day. We get a pineapple each week and I’ve never thought about trying to root it! I think it takes a couple of years before producing fruit, but what a great thing to try!

  3. Thanks so much Kelly-Anne and well done on your award!!! I am so glad you are blogging more often again, I so enjoy looking at your life in the countryside!!! Lots of love from all of us!!!

  4. Hi April, Yup… with fantastic results… we always have a great big pineapple plant growing on the windowsill!!! Give it a try!!! Have a fun week!!!

  5. Hi Karen M, Oh forget-me-knots how long since I have seen those!!! We have never managed to plant our pineapple plant out and survive in the garden… but in a jar on the windowsill it does really well!!! Hope you have a fabulous week!!!

  6. So, when are you harvesting the pineapple? What do you do with all the veggies that you are growing? Do tehy just grow and then get tossed when they need to be planted in the ground? I don’t really have a windowsill, but I remember my mommy growing African Violets galore…..

  7. Irene hi!!! We have never gotten round to planting our little farm out… apparently a pineapple takes years, whenever we have attempted to plant ours out they die… I think they like the wind-free, kitchen-counter-green-house more!!! Hope you are having a really fun week!!!

  8. What a wonderful post! My mom always had things growing on our window sill – thanks for bringing back the memory! Usually it was an avocado pit or 2 . Have to try this out with my girls. Thanks for the inspiration. xo

  9. Hay Katy… Always good to have a visit from Sycamore Stirrings!!! Glad you like our indoor garden… our avocado really did grow into a tree one time and my sister grew countless avocados on her window sill that she got friends to plant in a local township… brilliant way to green a very dreary part of our world. Hope you have a great week!!!

  10. Hi Lisa, Thanks so much for stopping by to comment!!! I really appreciate it!!! So glad you liked our veggie garden!!! Hope you all have a great week!!!

  11. Such great ideas! I grow shamrocks & aloe vera on my windowsill. Going to have to try pineapple now!

  12. HI Courtney, I know nothing about Shamrocks, but I sure am interested in growing Aloe Vera on the windowsill. Have a good day!!!

  13. Nice, I just learned about pineapple tops a couple weeks ago, but I had no idea you could just bust the tops off like that. I’ve got some citrus seeds growing and a mango and some garlic planted. I’m planning on trying to root some basil cuttings soon. check out this post for a pic of my citrus babies, and I’ll be updating again soon, with more of my garden adventures!

    http://foolsgoldphotos.blogspot.com/2011/03/green-things.html

  14. Hi Katie… So glad for the swap of information… I have never thought to try and grow citrus seeds!!! It is quite amazing what can be done just on the window sill!!!

  15. se7en,
    I just have a couple quick clarification questions that probably show very clearly how much of a newbie I am at all this 🙂 :
    when you cut the tops of all those veggies off, and put them in water, do they just grow green stems and leaves, or do you actually grow another of those veggies? If you do grow another vegetable, does it grow at the bottom where the top used to be, or somewhere else? And also, can you grow these vegetables from store-bought veggies, or do those not work so well?
    thanks!

  16. Hay Marie, We have never grown another vegetable from our gardens… somehow our windowsill garden lasts until the plants outgrow their containers… our pineapples grow in the same jar for years!!! And any vegetables work, really any kind of vegetable works, plants don’t seem to be quite as discerning as we are!!! Hope you have fun making a garden… Feel free to ask any more questions!!! Have a great weekend… and thanks for stopping by!!!

  17. Hi;
    What a wonderful windowsill! We tried to get sweet potato grow shoots but no luck. Do you keep them in water after you take them from cupboard?

  18. Hi Pinar, Once we take our sweet potato out of the cupboard we give it a tiny bit of water and often just add a little water to the dish or we place the water in a jar and place the potato in the mouth of thee jar, just above the water and the roots grow down into the water. Hope that helps!!! Have a good weekend!!!

  19. You have inspired me – we have a long weekend so this plus the MPMK article have me thinking of ditching my fake plants on my sill and starting a garden there for real. Thanks for the tips!

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