WINDOW BOXES People sometimes ask me why I have window boxes, and I tell them that it is the best way I know of breaking the outline of a building, and making any building look special and personal to the owner, a window box with brightly coloured plants cascading down under your window really draws everyone's eyes.
Place your window boxes under the windows you most frequently look out of so that you can enjoy their beauty as well as the people passing by your home or office.
You can buy window boxes at most garden centres, but I always find it more rewarding to make my own,you can easily put one together over a weekend and you only need a basic level of d.i.y. skills. I generally try to make mine about 8" deep, 8" to 10"wide, and the length of the window, if it is a particularly wide window I would use two or possibly three boxes to reduce the weight of each box after planting. Always remember to use good strong brackets to mount the boxes, I generally use 75mmx50mm sawn timber with an angled brace for extra support.
If you can get hold of some containers the correct size to fit your box, you can plant one set of containers with plants to take-over from the ones in your box when they have finished flowering for the season,ie: petunias for the summer display and winter flowering pansies for the dull miserable days of winter, by using inner containers your plants have time to get established before being put out on display for everyone to enjoy.
Before you plant up your box, cover the drainage holes with polystyrene chips, this prevents the compost being washed out when you water and reduces the overall weight quite dramatically when used instead of broken pots or gardening gravel.
Always use soilless compost which is made of spaghnum moss and containing perlite and vermiculite, this is much lighter than general purpose potting compost and it drains, and retains moisture better.
When you are ready to plant up your box, fill it about two-thirds full with the growing medium having first pre-moistened it, and then place your plants on top so that you can get an idea of what the finished look will be like, when you are happy with it plant them at the same depth as they were growing in their original pots/trays and leave half an inch below the edge of your box so that you can water them without it pouring over the edge and giving you wet feet.
When you have finished planting make sure you give it a good watering, and then water it regularly sometimes twice a day if the weather is particularly hot, you can tell if it needs watering by pushing your finger into the compost about an inch to see how moist it is, whatever you do don`t wait for the plants to wilt before you water. You need to keep a happy medium not to much, and not too little.