windowbox herb garden

[user 26]

now that the snow is melting ... i want to try again with windowbox herb gardens. last year some birds nested in them and would not go away. cute but they totaly spoiled both my plantings. according to the audobon society, the birds will likely return to the windowboxes having nested there last year. i am debating about hanging random shiny objects and noisy things - also shiny things sticking out of the boxes to deter them. i put out a couple birdhouses, but they ignored them and used the windowboxes.
anyway ... do you have an herb garden? most especially, do you have planter or windowbox herb gardens?
the price of fresh rosemary, basil and parsley is enough to convince me to try again

 

[Breakfast Diva]

No window boxes or planters, but I do plant herbs mixed in with my flowers in the flower beds. We have a lot of deer, so I plant a lot of rosemary in the beds to try to keep them from munching on everything.

 

[Lee2014]

We have two window boxes with flowers in them near the bird feeders. The birds prefer the trees, bushes, etc. instead. Right now they are full of snow!

 

[Morticia]

Not window boxes, I plant herbs right in the ground. But, I do have window boxes and last year I did get a nest. It's still there. What I found effective was to remove the nest. Several times. The birds give up after 3-4 removals.
Because this nest was in a second story box I tapped on the window when I saw the bird. It moved on.

 

[Silverspoon]

Finches will nest on any available ledge or surface and they are determined nesters! We have our herb garden just outside the kitchen door so we do not use window boxes, but we have had finches nest on our porch before we screened it in.
Your best bet it to continue to remove the nests of any birds in box. Put the box near the door where there will be lots of disruption to discourage the birds....be diligent about removing any nest and eventually, as Morticia found, the birds will find another spot.

 

[Morticia]

Finches will nest on any available ledge or surface and they are determined nesters! We have our herb garden just outside the kitchen door so we do not use window boxes, but we have had finches nest on our porch before we screened it in.
Your best bet it to continue to remove the nests of any birds in box. Put the box near the door where there will be lots of disruption to discourage the birds....be diligent about removing any nest and eventually, as Morticia found, the birds will find another spot..

We had what we could only consider to be a less than brilliant robin try to nest on the teeny ledge over the door we used all the time.
Nest would go up while we were at work, we'd scare bird off and remove nest after we came home. Day after day.

 

[gillumhouse]

I have herbs all around the perimeter of the house (3-sides that is). I also have large flower pot planters that I had chives in that I brought inside for the winter - they did very well. I bought 2 basil plants (they had roots and were at a Farmers Marker herb stall) and put them in a planter that had a tomato plant last year. They are not dead yet but they are not standing at attention either.
So far, the birds have not nested in any planters or herb beds - even after we removed the tree that housed all my car decorators for many decades before the blue spruce went bye-bye. But we are in and out of the house a lot so that may have discouraged them.

 

[user 26]

we have snow everywhere - but i am getting excited to get planting!
maybe i will put up one of those three tier things that goes on a window. the elders have cats that EAT plants. they are not allowed in my room so maybe i should grow in my room!
the rabbits and deer and one groundPIG (okay groundhog but such a pig) totally decimated my little garden patch. all my herbs, tomatoes, lettuce, gobbled up as soon as they appeared ... except for the tallest tomatoes in those towers. so i moved to container gardening. let the elders in this house and their sons install the promised deer fences etc. that never get installed each year. i will stick to my containers until they do. the animals don't like to come right up to the house so far ... although the enormous groundhog is pretty bold. i'll try to get a picture of him/her this year.

 

[Ice]

Did you see of Face Book to put plastic forks with the handle in the ground to keep rabbits away? I bet it would work for your flower box. Worth a try anyway.

 

[JBloggs]

Did you see of Face Book to put plastic forks with the handle in the ground to keep rabbits away? I bet it would work for your flower box. Worth a try anyway..

Did you see of Face Book to put plastic forks with the handle in the ground to keep rabbits away? I bet it would work for your flower box. Worth a try anyway.

I did that the very night DH and I met in July 1988.
TMI

 

[Highlands John]

No box, but a herb bed outside the kitchen door.
Rosemary, parsley, thyme, chives, sage, oregano plus mint in pots (because it's so invasive).
I also grow parsley, Italian and curley leaf, on my allotment. We use it as a garnish on breakfast plates, so get through a lot. 1 row (half of each) produces more than we can ever hope to use.

 

[Samster]

I have "window boxes" that are attached to my side porch railings and grow a variety of herbs in there every year. Rosemary is in the ground and I used to have 2 HUGE bushes as part of the landscaping in the front of my house but over time they became very woody and I just pulled them out last year once the bush in the backyard became a nice size.
I got rid of birds nesting on some columns on my front porch many years ago by putting mothballs in the foot part of stockings and tying them up. They don't like the smell...might work for your window boxes if separated from your plantings.

 

[Silverspoon]

No box, but a herb bed outside the kitchen door.
Rosemary, parsley, thyme, chives, sage, oregano plus mint in pots (because it's so invasive).
I also grow parsley, Italian and curley leaf, on my allotment. We use it as a garnish on breakfast plates, so get through a lot. 1 row (half of each) produces more than we can ever hope to use..

Speaking of rosemary....we are too cold to leave it outside in the ground so I lug it in every fall and put it out in the spring. In spite of the cold weather outside it is currently in bloom and provides a wonderful scent whenever we brush up against it. I would post a picture but still do not have a clue about how to do that. Help?

 

[EmptyNest]

No box, but a herb bed outside the kitchen door.
Rosemary, parsley, thyme, chives, sage, oregano plus mint in pots (because it's so invasive).
I also grow parsley, Italian and curley leaf, on my allotment. We use it as a garnish on breakfast plates, so get through a lot. 1 row (half of each) produces more than we can ever hope to use..

Speaking of rosemary....we are too cold to leave it outside in the ground so I lug it in every fall and put it out in the spring. In spite of the cold weather outside it is currently in bloom and provides a wonderful scent whenever we brush up against it. I would post a picture but still do not have a clue about how to do that. Help?
.

Go to your account /file browser and upload the photo. Then when you do a post, click on the image icon and choose the photo you uploaded.

 

[EmptyNest]

No box, but a herb bed outside the kitchen door.
Rosemary, parsley, thyme, chives, sage, oregano plus mint in pots (because it's so invasive).
I also grow parsley, Italian and curley leaf, on my allotment. We use it as a garnish on breakfast plates, so get through a lot. 1 row (half of each) produces more than we can ever hope to use..

Speaking of rosemary....we are too cold to leave it outside in the ground so I lug it in every fall and put it out in the spring. In spite of the cold weather outside it is currently in bloom and provides a wonderful scent whenever we brush up against it. I would post a picture but still do not have a clue about how to do that. Help?
.

duplicate

 

[gillumhouse]

No box, but a herb bed outside the kitchen door.
Rosemary, parsley, thyme, chives, sage, oregano plus mint in pots (because it's so invasive).
I also grow parsley, Italian and curley leaf, on my allotment. We use it as a garnish on breakfast plates, so get through a lot. 1 row (half of each) produces more than we can ever hope to use..

Speaking of rosemary....we are too cold to leave it outside in the ground so I lug it in every fall and put it out in the spring. In spite of the cold weather outside it is currently in bloom and provides a wonderful scent whenever we brush up against it. I would post a picture but still do not have a clue about how to do that. Help?
.

You may have to resize the photo to get it to upload. I have to make all my photos e-mail size to get them to upload, otherwise I get error, file too big.

 

[Silverspoon]

No box, but a herb bed outside the kitchen door.
Rosemary, parsley, thyme, chives, sage, oregano plus mint in pots (because it's so invasive).
I also grow parsley, Italian and curley leaf, on my allotment. We use it as a garnish on breakfast plates, so get through a lot. 1 row (half of each) produces more than we can ever hope to use..

Speaking of rosemary....we are too cold to leave it outside in the ground so I lug it in every fall and put it out in the spring. In spite of the cold weather outside it is currently in bloom and provides a wonderful scent whenever we brush up against it. I would post a picture but still do not have a clue about how to do that. Help?
.

Go to your account /file browser and upload the photo. Then when you do a post, click on the image icon and choose the photo you uploaded.
.

Ahhh, that did it! Thanks Empty and Gillum. Let me see if it will show up in this post
.

 

[user 26]

oh, isn't that lovely!

 

[Morticia]

No box, but a herb bed outside the kitchen door.
Rosemary, parsley, thyme, chives, sage, oregano plus mint in pots (because it's so invasive).
I also grow parsley, Italian and curley leaf, on my allotment. We use it as a garnish on breakfast plates, so get through a lot. 1 row (half of each) produces more than we can ever hope to use..

Speaking of rosemary....we are too cold to leave it outside in the ground so I lug it in every fall and put it out in the spring. In spite of the cold weather outside it is currently in bloom and provides a wonderful scent whenever we brush up against it. I would post a picture but still do not have a clue about how to do that. Help?
.

Go to your account /file browser and upload the photo. Then when you do a post, click on the image icon and choose the photo you uploaded.
.

Ahhh, that did it! Thanks Empty and Gillum. Let me see if it will show up in this post
.

.

I used to bring the rosemary in but it's way to strongly scented. As long as the snow is deep enough it sometimes lasts a couple of years.

 

[gillumhouse]

No box, but a herb bed outside the kitchen door.
Rosemary, parsley, thyme, chives, sage, oregano plus mint in pots (because it's so invasive).
I also grow parsley, Italian and curley leaf, on my allotment. We use it as a garnish on breakfast plates, so get through a lot. 1 row (half of each) produces more than we can ever hope to use..

Speaking of rosemary....we are too cold to leave it outside in the ground so I lug it in every fall and put it out in the spring. In spite of the cold weather outside it is currently in bloom and provides a wonderful scent whenever we brush up against it. I would post a picture but still do not have a clue about how to do that. Help?
.

Go to your account /file browser and upload the photo. Then when you do a post, click on the image icon and choose the photo you uploaded.
.

Ahhh, that did it! Thanks Empty and Gillum. Let me see if it will show up in this post
.

.

Nice. Mine has been in a pot and survived about 4 years, but I think this winter did it in.