I run a gardening project in a little community centre.
Last year our rectangular window boxes were lovely, we had ceanothus in the middle with trailing ivy on the sides. We filled the gaps at the side of the ceanothus with seasonal bedding plants and bulbs.
We closed for lockdown in March and I was unable to access the building as I live in another county and travel was restricted. (Added to which both the caretaker and I were ill in early April as were several other members of our team)
Sadly on our return the window boxes are awful; they haven't been watered at all. As the area is subject to high winds and full sun for much of the day only one ceanothus and a few stunted ivy plants have barely survived.
So what would suggest for our new planting scheme? The building is Victorian, faces south east, the windows are 12 ft high and glorious, pale stone set in yellow brick with window boxes on the three sides of the bow window.
The other problem we need to overcome is watering. I would be happy to fashion some sort of Heath Robinson water gathering system in case we have the threatened local lockdown. We could manage to buy an effective (fairly cheap!) watering system.
Having written this I can see I have put the issues in the wrong order. My questions are:
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how can I ensure the window boxes are adequately watered if people can't always be there?
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what plants would flourish and look good year round in the above conditions?
One of our neighbours has the most stunning window boxes but they live in the building and devote quite a bit of time to their maintenance.
We don't have a huge budget but I can put a shout out for donations and ask various organisations for help.