Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers

Garden Gate Window Box Designs

Decorate your house and add garden space in one step. Here's how.

Designing Your Window Box

The first phase of window-box design is deciding where to put the box. For a European look, hang one at every window. For a formally balanced home with matching windows, hang boxes on both windows. But if the balance is already offset with trees or shrubs, you may just hang one.

Next, get down to the nitty-gritty of filling the boxes. I have to admit to a cavalier attitude about designing boxes. That's because I can see what goes well together better than I can visualize it. So I first choose a color scheme, then head to the garden center and browse the sun and shade sections for plants in that scheme.

I often take liners with me, filling them with on-the-spot selections. Other times, I just start mixing and matching, choosing plants with complementary colors and the same sun and water needs. If all the plants won't fit in the boxes, they'll find a home in my container gardens.

Almost always, I grab a few standards: lobelia and sweet alyssum for fine texture, vinca to trail and licorice vine (Helichrysum petiolare) for color. Like our gardens, window boxes look best with a mix of plants: short, tall, bushy, upright, trailing, fine- and coarse-textured.

It's amazing what you can put together with such an easygoing attitude. One year, I felt like having monochromatic gardens. Another year, it was fragrance (yummm!). That same year, I tired of looking at empty boxes in winter and filled them with a seasonal mix. These planting plans can help you create similar window boxes.

Planting and Care
While at the nursery, pick up a bag of lightweight potting soil. Most peat-based mixes, such as Fertilome and Sunshine, are OK, plus they offer good water retention and air porosity for root growth.

At home, gather plants, soil, liners and boxes for a potting marathon. You'll most likely have 6-, 4- and 3-inch plants as well as six-packs of plants. How do you get them all in that narrow space? Squeeze!

Start by sprinkling 1 to 2 inches of soil mix on the bottom of the liner (just enough that the largest root balls sit an inch below the rim). Knock the plants out of their pots, flatten the roots between your palms, then set them in place. Add more soil for the next-largest plants and put them in, squishing their roots if needed. Add more soil for the smallest annuals and plant them. It won't hurt for root balls to touch.

You can get a surprisingly large number of plants in a window box. The most beautiful boxes burst with flowers and color. Because they are so full, you'll need to keep an eye on them. The plants will quickly soak up water, so check the soil daily and fertilize at least once a month with a water-soluble 5-10-5 fertilizer.

To hang your small garden of sunshine, here's an easy hang up that won't harm your house.

Provided By Garden Gate Magazine
(c) August Home Publishing Co.
All Rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission, HouseNet, Inc.


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