This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Glazed windowbox for vegetables?
Greyfinger
Posts: 1
Has anyone any experience of growing vegetables (such as salad plants or other high-value, low bulk crops) under glass (or plastic!) in a window box? Could be useful to extend the season, grow someting different or faster, if you haven't the ground. What sort of depth of soil might I need? Breadth of box? Automatic watering? Range of plants? Potential problems of overheating? Ideas for materials? Practical thoughts?
Thanks
0
Posts
I think if you're looking at a covered box it's likely to be pretty big, you might end up looking at a coldframe on the ground, instead. I'd imagine the single most important factor is positioning it somewhere sunny. I don't know of any products like you're describing but you can get glazed boxes that screw into the wall (below a window, if you like) so it's not unthinkable that you could find a lid for one.
Ideal for something like Strawberries (although I think they need a pollinator so can't be covered whilst this business is going on), and as you point out, salad. Both have fairly shallow roots so suit this environment. It may extend your season, certainly it works in my greenhouse where Tomatoes are concerned but that's a much bigger area than a small covered window box, so you may find it doesn't scale up quiet so well. Faster, particularly in a sunny position, almost certainly.
As for irrigation; it's easy enough to run a small piece of hose along a wall from a water butt or tap (although bear in mind not everything thrives on tap water). You can buy narrow hose for a smaller profile.