My window box dream finally came true! I live in a Chicago brick bungalow – an old house with concrete blocks that literally stick straight out of the front of the house. Those blocks are there to serve one purpose and one purpose only: to hold a planter box. And now I’ve got one!
This pretty window box planting was inspired by Learn2Grow’s Design by Function plan.
Photo Credit: Sarah Landicho
A 9-foot-long window box can be a challenging – but beautiful – planter!
Photo Credit: Sarah Landicho
I added some garden soil to the potting mix to improve moisture retention.
Photo Credit: Sarah Landicho
I planted the box from the center and worked my way out to make sure my 9-foot container would look balanced.
Photo Credit: Sarah Landicho
Finally – something beautiful tops off those ugly concrete blocks!
Photo Credit: Sarah Landicho
We moved into our house back in 2003. While I’ve been creative with those three concrete blocks in the past (typically putting single pots atop them to zip things up a bit), I never got the window box…until now. I special-ordered a cedar box this spring – all 108 inches of it! Admittedly, the 6 x 6 x 108 planter was a bit intimidating at first. I’d never planted anything that long all at once before. But I was up to the challenge.
I started by looking at Learn2Grow’s “Design by Function: Window Box” article. Of course, my 108-inch-long box is a bit bigger than the planter featured, but the design principles are the same. I jotted down approximately how many upright, mounding and trailing plants I thought I’d need, then I headed to the garden center.
On the way there, I made a mental note of what to keep in mind while choosing the plants I wanted – namely size, light and water requirements, and color combinations. First, my box only measures 6 inches tall and wide, which meant that smaller plants would work better. Second, my box gets a mix of sun and shade: It’s sunny enough to support the sun worshippers but shady enough to add some plants that tolerate less light. Third, I had to think about what colors would look good out front. After all, I didn’t want my new additions to clash with the existing plants in my front yard!
Now here’s where I should add that I’m more of an “eyeballer” when it comes to picking out the number of plants to use. Sure, I could’ve brought along my calculator and a ruler and figured out exactly how many plants I’d need to fill up each inch of my new window box, using proper spacing between each one. But I work better using my mind’s eye to picture the end result. That said, I got a nice long garden shopping cart to set plants up as I went, and I started reading plant tags.
I picked out what I figured to be the appropriate number of trailing, upright and mounding annuals, attempting to match up their sizes and care requirements as closely as I could. I chose pinks, whites and purples this summer (to match the mostly purple and pink bloomers in the front garden). My mounding selections centered on white and pink petunias, as well as some pink New Guinea impatiens. For upright growers, I picked pink Stampede™ Series salvia and some white and pink geraniums. And I love the trailing annuals – I picked white and purple bacopa (I just love the full look they add), Swedish ivy and a couple dicondra.
With my lovely annuals in hand (or rather, on cart), I headed over to the potting soils and mixes to pick up a good potting mix, as well as some garden soil. I had read in another Learn2Grow article that adding some actual soil to the mix helps it retain moisture better (too much, however, just runs out in a muddy stream). Moisture retention is a key factor in the success of my long container garden – since the window box is only 6 inches wide and deep, it doesn’t hold as much soil as I’d like for all those plants. Additionally, the planter rests under our home’s eaves, so it’s not likely to get much water by way of rainfall.
When I got home, I filled the box partway with potting mix, added generous scoops of soil and combined it well. Then I wet the mix down a bit to ensure lots of good moisture for the plants and to make sure they’d settle in nicely. I started building my planting from the center outward, replicating what I’d envisioned at the garden center, by laying out the plants on top of the soil (still in their pots). I followed the Learn2Grow window box Design by Function diagram and interspersed mounding, trailing and upright plants to get a variety of heights, leaving a little room for each plant to grow out a bit.
I did shift a few plants around once I initially placed them in the box, but overall, I really liked the effect I was left with. Then it was time to do the fun stuff – the actual planting! I topped it all off with a bit more potting mix so the plants would be snug in their new home. Then I watered them all in. I took a final step back to examine my new creation…and boy was I pleased!
Even though I changed and added the original Learn2Grow Design by Function plan to meet my specific window box needs, it truly helped having a design to base my vision on. And I really love how the finished planter looks against our house. Now when we walk by our home, there’s actually something sitting on top of those big concrete blocks that I can be proud of!
