Windowsill gardens
...and the smell of tomato plants
I was in the garden yesterday evening, pottering around with my son as he crawled through flower beds, swung from forbidden tree branches and dug through the soil looking for worms, beetles and other treasure. It was a quiet evening, way past dinner time, and the daily chore of needing to go indoors and cook dinner was tapping on my shoulder. But we were both having such a lovely time outside I kept putting it off. Just for another couple of minutes…
As I looked around us everything in the garden felt as if it was on the cusp of really getting going. The hornbeam hedge was starting to leaf up, the pear tree was sprinkling the lawn with blossom, the grass was getting long and tangling itself pleasingly in various corners and the flower beds were overflowing with spring bulbs and bright yellow dandelions.
As I turned and looked back at the house I had a sudden sense of this new green life taking over indoors as well. At this time of year every single windowsill in my house is crammed with trays of seeds and seedlings and as I looked back at the house in the early evening light the plants on the windowsill merged with the reflection of the garden in the window, creating a lovely sense of green life bubbling up and taking over, both indoors and out. It felt like a sudden seasonal shift and a true sign of the approaching summer, where doors and windows can be left open all day and the boundary between the two starts to bend and blur in the loveliest way.
Image: deVOL
If you haven’t tried growing seeds on a windowsill I strongly recommend it. It’s the best way to create a seasonal link between indoors and out, especially at this lovely green, leafy, springy time of year. It’s fun, super easy and also a really good activity to do with kids. Here are some of the ways a windowsill garden will instantly elevate and cheer up your kitchen / living room / any room at all.
Reasons to grow seeds indoors
They instantly ‘green up’ an interior. And look cheerful from outside too.
It’s like having houseplants but small, very fast-growing ones that will be out of your hair as soon as May is halfway through.
As a way of tapping into a seasonal way of life it’s simple, easy and fun.
It’s a great activity to do with kids with short attention spans as they grow much quicker than anything outdoors (especially sunflower seeds - I swear those literally grow while you watch them.)
There’s a promise of tasty fruit, vegetables or pretty flowers later in the year.
The smell! (more on this later)
Why they have the edge on traditional house plants
I’m a big advocate of ‘traditional’ house plants as they are the quickest way to make a connection with the outside world, particularly in the winter when it’s deeply soothing to have a little pot of green life to look after indoors. (I devoted a whole chapter to them in my latest book). But they are usually, by their very nature, quite static. Chosen for their slow growing, evergreen nature, most houseplants are usually not native to this country (otherwise they wouldn’t be so green in the winter).
In comparison, seedlings are like tiny native houseplants that are very much alive and growing. Like anything tied to the seasons, they’re fleeting in their lifespan which makes them even more precious. Filling a windowsill with trays and pots full of seeds allows you the pleasure of watching them rapidly unfolding and growing day by day, at the same time as watching the the world outside also waking up.
The best smell. Ever.
My seedlings are mainly tomatoes because my vegetable growing skills are pretty rudimentary, and I leave anything more complex to my mum whose own house is overflowing with seedlings at this time of year. But by growing tomatoes I get the added joy of being able to walk past them and gently brush a leaf between my fingers to release what I think is the best smell on the planet. If you haven’t sniffed a tomato plant then you need to do it immediately. I don’t think I’m alone in this; I remember a few years back I found a hand soap that claimed to be tomato-leaf scented - it was actually pretty good, but obviously nothing beats the real thing.
Curiously, I’m not such a fan of eating tomatoes. After all my early spring enthusiasm, I struggle to get through a garden’s worth of tomatoes (something about the texture) and often end up giving them away, which is daft really, so I think I’ll work on that this summer. All recipe suggestions welcomed.
But until then I’ll just enjoy their company on my kitchen windowsill. And living room windowsill. And bathroom windowsill…
Hope you have a lovely weekend,
Vicky x
Who else is a fan of windowsill gardening and does anyone else have a soft spot for the scent of a tomato leaf? Let me know…
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