How to Plant a Window Box

Spring time brings a sense of cheerfulness and color that has been long missed during the dreary cold days of winter. A perfectly planted window box can generally be planted in a window or on a porch near a window and you'll get two benefits. Window boxes provide a beautiful exterior view of your home for neighbors, while giving you with a special burst of color on the inside of your home as well. Planting a window box can be a little tricky and depending on where you live, you’ll need to do a little research on the right flowers to use, but a few simple steps and insider tricks can make planting a window box an easy, creative and rewarding experience.

Things You'll Need

• Window box
• Soil-less planting mixture
• Plant food
• Fertilizer
• Variety of plants, flowers and vines
• Herbs and vegetables (according to preferences)
• Plant nursery

Instructions

1. Not everyone was born with a green thumb and if you’re one of the unlucky ones you may think that plastic flowers and plants are the only foliage in your future. This is not the case. In fact, window boxes are the best way to hone your flower-growing skills. With a little guidance, the mini gardens will be blooming in your fingertips in no time.

2. Select the window box. There are a wide variety of shapes, sizes and styles available. You’ll need to make sure that the measurements match those of your window or match the size you’re looking for on your porch. After you’ve done that, simply pick the one that suits your tastes.

3. Don’t skimp on cheap soil. Purchase hearty soil-less soils that have already been laced with plant foods and fertilizer. The perfect soil, along with the right flowers, is the key to a perfect window box.

4. Consider using a soil mix that has vermiculite and peat moss. This will ensure the health of your plants and will prevent the soil from waterlogging.

5. Visit your local nursery and talk to the staff. Ask them what kind of plants grow easily in your climate, the best plants for non-gardeners, the kind of foliage that requires little maintenance and what kind of flowers and plants grow well together. Gardening takes a little work, but it doesn’t have to be painstakingly difficult.

6. You don’t have to plant seed in window boxes. Window boxes are seasonal decorations and seeding will only shorten the time you have to enjoy your garden. Buy plants and flowers that are already growing and transplant them.

7. Purchase flowers that are visually pleasing to you, but keep in mind what plants grow well together and what plants destroy one another.

8. You’ll find that a wide variety of plants and flowers enjoy the comfort of a window box. Typical houseplants, annuals, herbs, vegetables and vines make wonderful and easy to maintain window box creations.

9. Taller growing plants and flowers should be placed in the back of the window box with the shorter ones in front. Trailing or crawling plants, such as vines and moss, look best toward the edges and sides.

10. When selecting your plants and flowers, keep in mind where you’ll be placing the window box. For example, if your placing the box in front of a short window you may want to avoid plants that grow two-feet tall.

Tips & Warnings

• Young and healthy plants are the best and easiest to transplant.

• Remember that a window box does not have to sit in a window. You can decorate a deck, porch, railing and patio with various shapes and sizes of window boxes.

• Window boxes require a soil-less mix. Soil-less mixes provide better aeration and drainage, which make it easier for plants to grow.

• Do not use stones in the bottom of your window box. This could make the box to heavy and drainage rocks are not necessary when using a soil-less mix.