Hands in the Dirt: Windowsill Gardening

Photo and article by Donna Iverson

January has arrived along with snow, cold, and seed catalogs. The first to arrive in my mailbox this new year was from Seed Savers Exchange located in Decorah, Iowa. Their 2021 catalog offers untreated, organic, non-hybrid, non-GMO seeds. 

When gardening seems a distant dream, seed catalogs like Seed Savers Exchange, offer a tangible promise of garden beds filled with veggies, scented herbs and colorful flowers. 

In addition to the many pages of seed offerings, especially enjoyable were the inspiring stories of gardeners who shared insights into their favorite growing experiences. For example, Kirsten Shockley of Oregon wrote of growing peppers from rare seeds like Jimmy Nardello’s and Carmen. “I am always surprised how mostly the same species can produce such variants in beauty, flavor and color,” she wrote. 

After reading the many gardening stories, I found myself impatient for spring and longing for something green growing in the winter months. So the next day, when walking by my local yoga studio, I notice potted aloe plants sitting on the window ledge. And they were for sale. The inspiration lightbulb went off in my head. 

They would make for a perfect windowsill garden, checking off a lot of my favorite gardening boxes:  aesthetic, herbal, medicinal, cat proof, and low maintenance. Researching the internet, I find that aloe is also edible but that’s a reach too far for me. 

Aloe Vera has an otherworldly quality, a spare beauty that speaks of desert sand and hot days under a blazing sun. Yet it seems perfectly happy in a sunny window with snow piling up outside. As experts say that most of us now spend 80 to 90 percent of our time indoors, plants like aloe offer an opportunity to bring nature inside. 

The point is that your windowsills offer many gardening opportunities. Whether it’s planting seeds in early spring to transport to the outside garden, or growing culinary herbs for flavoring your favorite dishes, or maybe some germanium plants to lift your spirits. You can start with plants purchased from local garden shops, or buy seeds from your favorite gardening catalog, arriving now.

If you do decide to go the catalog route, order early as last year many seeds sold out as people found gardening both a way to relax and grow food during a pandemic.  The same is expected to happen this year.
Add to that predictions that the seed catalog may soon become a thing of the past, as more and more customers are ordering online. There is no time to delay.

Seed catalogs being a  ray of sunshine in January. Provide inspiration and news from fellow gardeners. And can be saved and used almost like a gardening encyclopedia the whole year around. And the stunning photography makes even the most unlikable vegetable look delicious.