In keeping with this week’s herbaceous theme, this post is all about the window garden, and how to get yours started with minimal effort and expense… even at this late mid-summer date.

Seeds for the window garden

Many window gardens are big floral affairs, but in the spirit of saving moola, I decided to forgo lush flowers (several pounds apiece) and instead plant some easy-to-grow seeds. With any luck, these seeds will shortly grow into lush salad ingredients for my dining pleasure.

You see, I have had it with overpriced salad mixes (£1.79 for a small packet, last time I shopped!). First, it’s impossible to find the right mix – my local shop sells out of everything but the cursed ‘All Radicchio, All The Time’ mix. What’s more, if you find a tasty option, best eat it fast: regardless of best by date, bagged salads last a day at most. So you see, it’s high time this moola grew a little lettuce lovin’ of her own.

Step 1 – assemble your components. I bought three packets of seeds: French breakfast radishes (£1.20), rocket (£1.39) and chives (£1.65). I also used one of my free packets of lettuce seeds from the flower show. The suggested sowing season for each of these stretches into August, so I should be fine time-wise. Radishes, chives, basil and rocket are crazily easy to grow. They’re quick to sprout and hard to kill, so if you’re a rookie gardener, consider cutting your teeth on these.

I assembled a hodge-podge of clay pots, fancy pots (the kind you get as a housewarming gift) and plastic pots (just pennies at a garden store). Really though, you can use anything. I also needed compost (£6.95 for a giant bag; I used about 1/8 of the bag) and a spade.

Everything you need for a window garden

Step 2 – drainage is everything. Put some stones in the bottom of each pot to create a little space, so that if you do overwater, the water can drain somewhere. This is crucial if your pots don’t already have drainage holes, but still a good idea even if they do. I used pebbles, bits of brick and a few chunks of broken terracotta pot.

Pebbles underneath the compost allow for drainage

Step 3 – fill ‘er up. Check your seed packets to see how deep seeds should be sown. Mine were all between ¼ inch and 1/8 inch, so I filled the pots with compost (break it up if it’s chunky), just shy of the top, and then sprinkled the seeds on. You can set your seeds out in rows if you like; this always looks nicer when they grow. I opted for the scattershot, possible overseed approach, mostly because it was raining and I was getting cold! If needs be, I can thin things once my veggies start growing.

Seeds bedded into compost

Step 4 – dirt, water, done. Once the seeds are bedded in, sprinkle the suggested amount of compost on top again, and then water those babies like they’ve never been watered before.

The finishing touch: I tend to forget what I have planted once I’ve put my tools away, but I devised a clever – and super-budget – way to avoid that this time round. I used an indelible marker to scrawl the seed type on some unused takeaway chopsticks, et voila: the members of my window garden have nifty little name tags.

All that was left was to wipe each pot clean, position them on the ledge… and hope for sun.

The plants in my window garden, all in a row

Technical note: this task took me a grand total of 20 minutes, and on the effort scale it was pretty negligible.

Total spent: £5.99, which breaks down as £4.24 on seeds and £1.75 on soil (that’s ¼ of the bag’s cost, though I used less)

Total saved: It’s tough to calculate how much this project will save me, but I figure if 60% of my seeds take, I’ll be looking at 8-10 salads, 4x packets fresh chives, and 20 or so radishes. By my back-of-the-seed-packet calculations, that’s at least £16, so a savings of £10.01. Of course, this all assumes my window garden will grow… I’ll keep you posted!