Window box allotment : more inspiration

If you are inspired to try growing fruit and veg in your windowbox, but don't know where to start, there are plenty of books out there to guide you.

My favourites are: Crops in Pots: 50 Great Container Projects Using Vegetables, Fruit and Herbs and The Window-box Allotment: A Beginner's Guide to Container Gardening

Crops in Pots is written by Bob Purnell. It is a glossy book, filled with lovely inspiring images - but could be said to be a little light on practical content...

The Window-box Allotment by Penelope Bennett is a completely different affair. It is written in a lyrical, diary form without any pictures, but the writing is so evocative, you would almost be happy to read it as a novel!

Window box allotment :

This balcony allotment grows 5 different types of tomatoes, parmex carrots, purple sprouting broccoli, kale, mizuna, rocket, pak choi and chicory in terrazzo window boxes.

Notice how the 60cm terrazzo windowboxes are hung over the balcony rail, close butted together in a line, so they look like a giant planter. Very sleek

Sugar snap peas, leeks, sunflowers and a wide range of herbs are grown in tubs and windowboxes placed on the floor of the balcony like a planting trough.

Create a windowbox allotment, without having to grow your fruit and vegetables from seed, with these pre-grown vegetable plug plants.

£24.95 gets you a selection of baby growing plants, in biodegradable coir pots. All you need to do is unpack them, and pop them in your windowbox - it's easy!


You will receive the following growing baby plants:

Dwarf French Green Beans x 3
Mixed lettuces x 10
Rocket x 10
Mizuna x 10
Spinach x 10
Golden streak mustard x 10
Spring onions x 10
Beetroot x 10
Basil x 1 pot
Parsley x 1 pot
Chives x 1 pot


This window box garden garden is ideal for those who would love to grow some of their own food but have little space or no garden available.

The plants can be grown in window boxes, pots, containers, in the garden, on a patio, roof terrace, balcony or on the window sill...

It's amazing how much you can harvest out of this garden - and it's so simple that no gardening experience is required! Order your windowbox allotment now for delivery Spring 2009

Edible plants for your windowbox

Great tips from the Independent about the best edibles to grow in your windowbox.

My favourite Chanteray carrots get a mention - although parmex will also grow very happily in a windowbox...

DESIGNER WINDOWBOXES - 12 WAYS WITH A ZINC WINDOW BOX

Back in 2003, a dozen members of the gardening elite were asked to each design a windowbox to raise money for charity at The Daily Telegraph House and Garden Fair. They were each given a zinc window box to style.

These mini show gardens range from the edible window box:

Roy Strong's zinc window box shown above - inspired by Beatrice Potter and Mr McGregor!

To the low maintenance window box:


This sumptuous planting was created by top garden designer Arabella Lennox Boyd and features pelargonium 'Lord Bute' and Helichrysum petiolare 'Silver' for summer long interest

To a miniature version of Versaille in a windowbox - created by Paul Cooper and Bonita Bulaitis

Find out more, and see the other windowbox creations in the Telegraph article of 2003

Buy your very own aged zinc window box from Garden Boutique and send us your designs!

Edible Window Box

You don't need to have a big garden in order to grow your own fresh herbs and vegetables - a windowbox will do!

Most peoples priorities are for herbs and salad - although you can grow all sorts of things, from aubergines, to tomatoes, to sugar snaps - even those great short carrots (parmex etc)


Here is a cut and come again salad mix growing in a windowbox on the office balcony. At the moment, we are growing baby pak choi leaves, spinach, mizuna and land cress. There are also a few baby leeks in there - which I like to use in salads a bit like spring onions.

We also have a few windowboxes of herbs - chives, sage, thyme etc... Here we've added a few annual red salvias to brighten up the planting, along with the evergreen Heuchera 'Palace Purple'. Just beginining to trail over the front are some great double red petunias which are going to look fantastic against the black terrazzo planter - and should start flowering just as the salvias begin to fade.