I miss having a garden to sit out in. So I am going to attempt making indoor gardens. I need some sage wisdom on window plants and maybe ideas of how to filter out heat of sun without obscuring window.

I have east facing windows in lounge and kitchen. It gets super hot in them and full bright sunshine from sunrise to 10.30 - 11.00am.

The window wells are about 6.5 inches deep. In the kitchen I hope to put in 2 glass shelves to hold plants. In the lounge the plan is for a long narrow hall table with shelves beneath, like this.

In the kitchen window, I think I shall have to apply some frosted window film as there will be no room to use roller blind with glass shelves in. This is not so much a problem for me since the neighbors on the other side of fence have put up an ugly breeze (cinder) block shed and have blocked view of trees and bushes in their garden.

The lounge window presents more of a problem. It is floor to ceiling and about 9.5 feet wide. I was thinking since I do not want to permanently obscure the bottom half of window (where the plants will be) I might put a light linen roman or roller blind in at the halfway point where top and bottom panes meet. Table can be moved out to accommodate the blind.

Still it gets hot in these windows, especially the lounge as we would not leave the drapes open and everything on show while we are at work. So the proper plant selection is crucial to this project.

I am not very keen on succulents. I would like some herbs in kitchen. and something that flowers (for colour and interest) but is not fragrant.

Any ideas?