Windowboxes: The Ideal Container Garden.

Perhaps it’s just me.

I had owned my home for almost three years before I realized that those long green boxes under my windows weren’t there to catch falling leaves, rain, or dead insects.

My first three years were primarily spent digging up the previous owner’s “garden” and learning which plants would — and would not — survive under my somewhat untutored green thumb.

To the right of my front door, the former garden was really just a collection of half-dead juniper bushes and weeds. All of this loveliness had to be dug out and removed to make room for my new shrubs and perennials.

With much fanfare and enough sweat to float the Titanic, I hacked out the dying junipers and replaced them with a Wine-and-Roses Weigela, a pair of Holly bushes, and a Ninebark shrub. I was so proud, you would have thought that I had just planted Versailles.

This new garden was indeed a labor of love and the first of many learning opportunities for me, the quintessential New Gardener. As I came to discover, gardens — like spouses — are never really quite perfect, or finished. Even after several seasons, my modest garden is still a work in progress.

But late last spring, as I flung manure and peat moss into a new flower bed, something strange happened to me. I looked up through the sweat flowing past my eyes and saw – as if for the first time – those wonderful green windowboxes that sat empty beneath my windows. There were two in the front of the house and two in back. One of the front boxes was around six feet long. The other was about three feet.

At that moment I realized that I had overlooked one of the most obvious ways to dress up my home. In essence, I learned a lesson that humankind has known since the Great Flood: if a great tie can make a good shirt look even better, a great windowbox can make a good garden look like a great one.

As I said at the outset, perhaps it’s just me. I do have a way of overlooking the obvious. But in case you also have some empty windowboxes clinging to the side of your home, do yourself a favor — put them to work. It is easier than you think.

Even if you don’t have windowboxes on your house now, consider adding some. A quick trip to most nurseries, hardware stores, home supply centers, and even places like Wal-Mart and Target, will reward you with several styles to choose from. Most are wood or plastic, although some high-end planting centers also offer copper and other fancy varieties. If you want to play it safe and you have some extra cash to burn, consider buying boxes with built-in water reservoirs.

Here’s one of many attractive self-watering windowboxes available through Garden Supply Company -

Before you buy a new box, make sure that you measure the width of your windows carefully. It’s OK to go an inch or two longer on either side, but too short a windowbox would definitely look a little odd (like wearing a tie too short?).

The other important consideration is the weight of the windowbox. Filled with soil and plantings, the entire package can become quite an armful. Be sure to support the box with enough strong brackets that the weight of the load is spread evenly along its length. That six foot box that I have on the front of my house has three L-shaped, six-inch brackets to keep it from landing on my head when I am weeding beneath it. Be sure the brackets are securely attached to the outside wall.

One other thought about windowboxes. Consider getting plastic inserts to fit inside. It makes working with the plants much easier – you just take out the insert, play with your soil and plants, and drop it back in when you are finished. It also prolongs the life of the box itself, especially wooden boxes. If you have a long box, like I do, get two inserts to fill it.

Below you’ll find some great suggestions for plants for your windowboxes. Pay attention to which ones work best in different amounts of sunlight. In the meantime, here are a few other tips from my own experience with my boxes.

• Select plants that will have the impact you want. My house sits almost 200 feet from the road. Subtle colors – which I tend to favor – are barely visible from that distance. So, if you want the passers-by to ooh and ahh at your gardening talent, pick colors that will really get their attention.

• Use enough potting soil to bring the overall level to within an inch or so of the top of the box. In my first attempts at windowboxing, I used too little soil and some plants were barely visible a few feet away.

• Check the moisture levels of your boxes regularly. They tend to dry out much faster than plants sitting in the regular garden soil below.

• Maintenance is often more important for plants in windowbox plants than those in our gardens. Removing dead flowers to allow for new growth is essential.

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Tags: container gardening, plants for windowboxes, self-watering windowboxes, shade plants for windowboxes, sun plants for windowboxes, types of windowboxes, windowbox