Sooner or later, but in the life of many flower growers the question arises: "Where to put?! The place is over!" Indeed, green pets have flooded all available places and planes, and threaten to evict the owners from the legally occupied bed. Households in indignation shout that plants could be smaller, but who will listen to them? How can you refuse cacti, violets, ficuses and other handsome people cherished by such labor and love? And there is no need to refuse, because relatives are making noise, most likely, just for the sake of sight, and they themselves secretly admire the green kingdom and proudly say to their friends: "And we have such a monster! In half a room!" And casually consider these acquaintances less well-groomed specimens.
However, the reaction of others still does not solve the problem of the place, and here you have to call on your imagination and skillful hands to help. It's good if the hands are from where they need to be, and the order is with imagination. And if not, we will try to help with imagination in this article, and skillful hands, I am sure, will be found in someone from the male half of your large family.
On the Internet, you can find many ideas for creating all kinds of walls, shelves and stands, but in this article we will consider exactly those that are located directly on the window. This will solve the problem with lighting without additional light, and it will not require extra space in an already forced house.
Ampella plants on the window
For this option, we need several anchors with a hook, select the diameter depending on the estimated weight. I think 6 mm will be enough (anchors for 8 mm drill were used in the photo). Drill or perforator in the upper slope of the window, drill holes, insert an anchor. Anchor - from the word anchor, is a metal hook, with a spacer at the opposite end. It is inserted into the drilled hole and twisted clockwise by the hook. In this case, the spacer mechanism expands and tightly, as the anchor is held in the hole. On such a hook, unlike a self-cutter on a dowel, you can even hang a swing.
So, it's done! It remains to hang pots with plants. This placement option is suitable if you have both wooden and plastic windows. It is designed primarily for ampel plants, but in conditions of an acute shortage of space, any small plants can be planted in hanging pots. For example, cryptanthus grows in such a pot, although it is not an ampel plant at all, a herbivorous cat cannot get to it in a hanging pot.
Thus, you can hang plants on anchors above the window and in the immediate vicinity of the window if you drill in the ceiling (ceiling slabs are always concrete, so drill only with a perforator). If you do not have anchors, you can use self-tapping screws with dowels or hooks with dowels, you can hang a lace or a chain of planters on them, but the hook is more reliable - the rope will not fly off it just like that.
Ribbon Color Shelf
We call it student. The idea arose while living in a student dorm, where this model was completely easily created by fragile girls to accommodate the state stock of cosmetics. After it was modernized and implemented already for plants.
We need a board that is slightly less than the width of your window, but it is better to use 10mm plywood. You will also need several meters of a fabric belt (also called a helmet, used for the manufacture of reins and other household needs) and 4-8 self-tapping screws. This option is only suitable for windows with wooden frames.
Calculating the length of the harness you need is very simple. Either experimentally, or according to the formula 2SH + 4VP + 10 cm, where SD is the width of the board, VP is the height from the attachment point to the shelf. We divide our tape in half and cut it. We fold it in half and screw the ends of the helmet with 2-4 self-tapping screws to the frame. After that, we put the board on the resulting loops, observing its horizontal position. That's it, you can put flowers. Of course, the view of such a shelf, to put it mildly, is not very aesthetic for an apartment, but it is quite suitable for placing flowers on the balcony, on the veranda, in the country.
Let's improve this placement option: instead of a board or plywood, we use a plastic tray. It is more efficient - the sides will not allow the pots to move and fall, and if you place many small pots on it, for example, with cacti and other succulents, it is easy to remove all the pots at once along with the tray. As an attachment, we use tapes that are sold in any sewing accessories store: keeper tape, bending tape (for trousers) or belt tape (belts and bag handles are sewn from it).
Glass shelf for flowers on metal corners
Author Natalia Rusinova. This option for placing flowers was invented at a time of despair - where to put a huge number of plants!
Suitable only for those with wooden windows. We need metal corners with a stiffener, which are sold in any hardware store and a wooden rack 3.5-4 cm wide and 1.5-2 cm thick.
Corners can be taken and 10 cm long and 25 cm. The rail is cut into slats along the width of the future shelf, and attached to the corners on screws. Glass was ordered in a hardware store according to the specified sizes. The width of the glass was 25 cm, the length was 110 cm (this length at three corners). The edges of the glass shelves need to be ground so as not to cut. The glass is very easy to grind, for this I first took a large sandpaper, then an average, for all minutes of 15 work. But this seemed to me not enough so that the corners of the glass shelves (and they are very wide) would not touch or tear the veil on the window, I cut off the corners of the shelves on one side - from the one from the window.
These shelves are convenient because the glass is not attached by anything, it can be removed at any time, wash windows, etc. And so, in general, a very stable structure. I have one glass on the rail and on double-sided tape - for reliability.
Side shelves for colors per window
By Marta. This layout is similar to the previous one. Materials: two slats, 2 cm thick, 3-4 cm wide, the length of the slats is equal to the height of the window opening. Racks are attached to self-tapping screws with dowels at two points (top and bottom) of the side slope of the window. Metal angles with stiffeners approximately 10-15 cm long are attached to these racks. At a distance of about 40-50 cm from each other. Shelves made of thick plywood, 10 mm thick, are installed on the corners. Approximate dimensions of shelves: 20-25cm by 30-35cm. These are the dimensions for the window opening of the panel house. In a brick house, the walls are thicker and the shelves can be up to 50cm long. Plywood sheets prepared for shelves should be shaded so as not to get a splinter and varnished or painted with enamel.
An alternative to such shelves can be wall planters or decorative hooks for hanging pots. By the way, it should be noted that the shelves located on the side slope of the window have one drawback: the flowers standing closer to the window are illuminated better, and those that are "second" are worse. Therefore, you need to either install fluorescent lamps from the side of the room, or periodically turn the flowers on the other side to the light, or swap. The same flowers that are placed in the photo in the uppermost tier receive the least light, you need to put the most shade-tolerant plants there, or install additional light on top.
Placement of plants on the lattice
Author Natalia Matyushevskaya.
"I have quite a few big pots in which there are single stem plants, I tried to plant some babies on them, but something didn't really appeal to me and they liked it, and it's hard to find the perfect community. So the way out was this: we take a lattice suitable in size (I myself make it either from slats, or from cut wooden rulers, collect any convenient shape, or twist it with thin wire or on PVA), and install it on a pot, and you can put anything on the lattice, and a lot of space is saved and decorativeness is not only preserved, but also acquired! " Photo by Natalia Matyushevskaya:
We make a note: this method is convenient when there is a place under a large plant in a wide pot, and you can place several small pots with medium-sized flowers (for example, mini violets, fittonias, rooted cuttings of other plants). Even in this case, it is impossible to put other pots on the lattice too tightly, otherwise the ground in the pot under the crate will dry out badly and breathe, which will adversely affect the "mother" plant.
Suspended shelf per window
By OxyKsu.
We will need: 4 anchors with a hook (as mentioned above), two pieces of plywood for 10mm, from which we will make shelves, a thin metal cable or a strong rope. We fix the anchors in the upper slope, measure the required length of the cable, fix it on the hooks and at the corners of the first board using fasteners (you can screw in the same hooks as on top, but smaller). We also hook the fasteners on the back side of the board, we attach them on the second board on one side. We connect the boards with cables so that the lower one lies on the windowsill, and the whole structure is rather tightly stretched. When placed on the lower shelf of pots with plants, the loaded upper shelf will practically not swing.
This system can also be used for only one shelf, which will have a length for the entire width of the window, with the only difference that it will have to be fixed on six or more hooks in the upper slope.
Shelves for flowers wide window sill
The simplest shelf option is a prefabricated stick from a hardware store. There is no need to describe - everything is clear from the photograph. The shelf is angular, can have 3-5 tiers. It has a drawback - the sides steal light (overlap with downstream plants). Therefore, you may need additional coverage. There is a lot of sun in the western orientation window shown in the photo, so there is no need for additional light. It is desirable that the shelf is only made of light plastic, the white color reflects light, and the window will be lighter.
A more complex and expensive option is a glass shelf on metal holder legs. The shelf, which is shown in the photo, was made from a sketch in a custom furniture company. But if you have the opportunity to visit a furniture hardware store, and there is a needlework man in the house, you can make such a shelf yourself. The shelf can be angular of rounded glass or rectangular.
Another type of shelf is a metal rack for flowers, initially its length was about 2 m (see the last photo). The shelf was sawn to the height of the window opening and inserted into the brace. Because the window is plastic, so as not to scratch the slopes, pieces of foam plastic are placed under the ends of the rack. The foam can be replaced by cutting an isolon folded in several layers. Below are a few more photos of the members of the forum who adapted the shelves and flower racks on the windowsills.
Sincerely, Oksana Dyachenko (OxyKsu)
Natali Rusinova