Window boxes

[monkeysmama]

I am about to buy three new window boxes for our front garden window sill which I will then need to fill.

Over the past few years I have tried to grow lots of different plants in the front but with only temporary success.

I don't know what kinds of things are important but we get lots of sunshine in the summer (well, as much as anywhere in the UK!), we live parallel to a busy road, the house is a Georgian terrace with bay windows.

I am not an experienced gardener but I do love flowers. I am not a big fan of roses or really delicate plants. I love lavenders and wild flowers.

I need to build up my confidence as we had our back garden redone in the autumn and I need to start planting some climbers and new things out the back as well.

I am not sure what kind of soil I should be looking for either. Ordering on line would be great.

TIA for any advice.

Hi there,

You've got tons of choice! It really depends on what your hoping to achieve. (The soil will depend on the plants too). There's some good multi-purpose composts available for container plants: that will help to retain mositure during the summer months.

Being a veggie gardener (and I see that you also like wild flowers), I would grow a lovely selection of herbs. Not only will they smell and look great, but you'll be able to add them to dishes as and when required.

I've always grown Thyme, Chives and Curled Leaf Parsely outside (not been so succesful with soft leaf herbs such as basil). You could always interplant the herbs with lavender, which you can also use to fragrance foods too :)

If you have the time, I think it's always nice to change containers and window boxes with the seasons; keeps your display and the front of your house interesting.

But we're in winter right now and a little limited on choice. If your looking to plant asap, I'd maybe plant some Cyclamen in the boxes. You could sow the herb seeds indoors now, ready to use and plant outside when the weather warms up.

Hope this helps.

if the window boxes face the road i can't say i would rush to grow my herbs in them, but definitely do that for the back garden.

Window boxes are relatively small containers and small containers are best for temporary, seasonal stuff. anything more longterm will outgrow their space and use up the nutrients in the soil quite quickly.

In terms of 'design' what looks smartest is to choose a group of 3 or 4 plants, some tall some middling some low and dangly, and repeat them across all the pots. Which magazine have some really good 'recipes' for pots and you can buy the plants in any garden centre or b&q/homebase. No need to be snobby about window box plants.

To keep the front looking really smart the clever thing is to buy a second set of containers and have those in the background planted up and filling out for when the current lot go over. So you can have daffodils in now, and in the background have some summer stuff bought small and growing on.

I always do my spring window boxes with bulbs - tulips seem to work better than daffodils and then smaller things like crocus and violas for something leafier - but it does mean redoing them in the summer. Then again, it can be hard to achieve a permanent planting in window boxes for the reasons already mentioned (outgrowing spaces, depleting nutrients).

If you do choose bulbs, make sure they're not too top-heavy. When I used very large daffodils they keeled over, which is one reason I now prefer tulips.

The best window box combination I have come up with is miniature olive trees and some echeverias. Even as someone who works with plants all the time I seem to find it difficult to find time to keep my window boxes watered - hence everything goes brown pretty quickly with such a small amount of soil!

The Olives are really smart, evergreen and need little water, and the Echeverias are succulent, low-growing plants that need next to no maintenance.

You don't get the pretty flowers but, I've had this planted in my window boxes for more than a year now and it's been the best low maintenance combo I've found.

If you want summer flowers, Verbena varieties are great in bright colours. Also Bacopa (white flowers) is a little known but wonderful plant that will keep on growing and flowering into the autumn.

Thanks for all these responses. I'd not thought of miniature olive tress but love the idea. I am going to a garden centre later today so will see what I can find. We have four olive trees in our back garden that I love so it is a great idea.

Another thanks for the posts here.

I went for a combination of things in the end. Got some lovely big slate effect boxes for the front 3 bay windows. Unfortunately they didn't have any mini olive trees but the garden centre man advised on these beautiful lush green mini bushes (I've forgotten the name already) which are very easy care and hardy. They look great.

Also got a new bay tree which is by the front door and then some bulbs for spring, loads of snowdrops and cyclamens to plant now in the tubs in the front. It looks very smart but from the window I can see all the colour. The best thing is that me and dd had great fun planting it all .