We have the most annoying windows in this house - quite new ones, installed just before we bought the house. The window-sills are only about 4" wide AND there's a ridge down the middle of them, God knows why. NOTHING will go on them. Nothing.
I do have the big bay window ledge, which is about 8' x 2', but I cannot use any other window sills.
We still have to build the hoophouse. :(
Pat
Sills sloping from the middle, or a ridge poking up in the middle (weird in either case)? Could you shim them somehow? Even double-faced tape and laths might work. What about an arrangement like those cat platforms that cantilever from a windowsill? I have one plant shelf that hangs from the middle of a double-hung (never opened in living memory) window. It should also be possible to suspend shelves from the top of a window frame, if you don't mind screwing in a couple of I-bolts.
A ridge poking up from the middle. A sticking-up ridge along the length of the window sill, in the middle of the width of the sill. It's not wood: these windows are made of some sort of composite or plastic, I don't know what.
They're 'integral storm windows' - two layers of glass. That part is good. And they tip in for cleaning all surfaces, that part is also good.
The cat-shelf idea would work. I forgot, though - when I wrote my prior post - that we also have a cat. :) This makes plants-on-a-cat-shelf impractical.
The [shelves going across the upper part of the window] aren't practical either, darn it, because we cover the insides of most windows with clear plastic in winter (to save on heating costs).
Hanging plants would work well, though, I'll probably do that this winter.
Pat
Can you lay something on the windowsills to shim them up to level, so pots can sit on them? I'm thinking of blueboard (insulation) just because it's easy to cut. How high is the ridge in the middle of the sills? (What a PITA, btw!!) Could you get something and cut a kerf down the middle of it, so it'll straddle that ridge and be a level surface?
My windowsills are all 8" wide, because we still live in the basement (sore subject -- the upstairs two floors are dried-in, but unfinished), and our basement walls are cinderblock. Hence, wide windowsills. It's like living in a bunker in the winter, but it's warm...
[...]You're going to go nuts when you get that built. Leave yourself room for a comfy chair and a place to put a cup of coffee. And a radio, so you can listen to NPR while you fuss with your plants : ) Oh, and use your *verticle* space. I want to scream when I see people only using the bottom 3' of greenhouse space, and not growing vining varieties, hanging plants or anything. =:-O
Isn't it? A PITA, that is. I've no idea whatsoever why this ridge is here - it doesn't appear to have any functional purpose. It's about 2 inches high.
Thanks. I'm really looking forward to it, once we get it settled whether or not we are moving (never mind, long story). Maybe we're moving, we're not sure yet.
Pat
In my previous house, I screwed in those adjustable-shelf thingies on both sides of several windows -- the metal things with little slots all the way up. You then hang a metal bracket in the slots, match it up on the other side, and put a board across the brackets.
I put a lip around each of the boards by nailing on trim strip, mitred at the corners, but it's not absolutely necessary.
I got 4 shelves marching up each of 3 windows, and put plants, glassware, and cats in them. Well, the cats put themselves...
-- Marie Martinek Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA snipped-for-privacy@northwestern.edu
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