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| Photo Credit: Sarah Landicho |
| This pretty window box planting was inspired by Learn2Grow’s Design by Function plan. |
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!
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! | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Sarah Landicho | | A 9-foot-long window box can be a challenging – but beautiful – planter! |
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.
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