In this country, planter gardening offers apartment dwellers the enjoyment of container gardening from inside or outside. If you live in a single room or on a very small property, you can also have a garden with window boxes filled with pansies and primroses in the spring, with petunias or fuchsias in the summer, and chrysanthemums in the fall. In winter, vegetables and berries, such as sweet and sour pepper or California pine berries, add color. English ivy will provide a trailing green all winter long if kept out of the wind.
For best results in a window box garden, the box should be at least three to four feet long, but no more than six feet. If it is larger, it is too heavy to suspend and secure properly, and it cannot be easily lifted, not even by two people. Boxes that rest on wide window sills and sturdy porch railings can be eight feet long, but little longer, as moving them becomes too dangerous. Maintain a minimum depth of eight to ten inches, with a width of ten to twelve inches at the top. Of course, the lengths should vary depending on the window, or the series of windows or railings to be decorated with garden planters.
The most common material for gardening with planters is wood. California redwood turns neutral gray if left unpainted, and cypress will last for years. Cedar is recommended, as is a good quality white pine. Other materials include metals, which are attractive and, for the most part, lightweight. However, they have the disadvantage of conducting heat, so they overheat the soil in your garden with planters. Other suitable and durable lightweight materials are plastic, fiberglass, spun glass, and Gardenglas.
If you’re handy with tools, you can make your own wooden planters, following the instructions in your nursery or garden center brochures. Whichever plan you follow, get planks one to one and a quarter inches thick. (Thinner boards will warp and offer little insulation from the summer heat.) For fastening, rely on brass screws rather than nails, which in a few years can come off and cause a box to fall off. To secure the corners, reinforce with angle brackets. Make sure to provide enough drainage holes at the bottom for the water to pass freely. Space the half-inch holes six to eight inches apart when building your gardens with window boxes.
When the boxes are complete, treat the interior with a preservative to prevent rotting. Cuprinol or some other non-toxic material is great, but avoid creosote, which is poisonous to plants. Once the preservative has dried, apply at least two coats of good paint or stain.
Select a color that does not detract from the plants. Traditional dark green is satisfactory, albeit common, unless you use a tint like apple green. Note the colors of the flowers, especially plants that creep up the sides. Dark flowers are not visible against dark paint. The same goes for white flowers against light surfaces, such as white petunias against white boxes or pale yellow.
To securely fasten planter gardens, use bolts or lag screws and treat them beforehand to prevent rust. Leave about an inch of space between the window planter and the house for air movement. If the box garden is going to rest on a deck or other solid surface, erect it on slats or place it on bricks or wood blocks so that the drainage holes are not clogged. A little space under the boxes is also important for air circulation, which will dry out runoff water.
When planting a garden with planters, place a one-inch layer of broken pots, crushed bricks, small stones, or pebbles on the bottom to allow water to escape freely through the openings. On top of this, spread a piece of damp burlap or a layer of damp sphagnum moss, old leaves, hard coal slag, or ash to prevent soil from washing into the drainage area.
All plants in planter gardening need rich soil for lush growth. Separate the largest types: geraniums, coleus and fuchsias, separated from each other by eight and ten inches; smaller types: lobelias, annual phlox, wax begonias, sweet alyssum, and browallia, six inches apart. An eight-inch wide box holds two rows of plants, with the tall ones in the back and the short ones in the front. The boxes, ten inches wide, take three rows of plants, tall, medium and short for the edges.
After planting, spread an inch of peat mulch or other mulch over the soil to delay drying and keep weeds under control. In a month, give a liquid fertilizer and continue feedings every seven to ten days. Foliage fertilizers can also be applied, but only as a supplement to feeding the roots.
The choice of plants for window box gardens is limited only by size. Plants over a foot tall don’t look good unless the boxes are exceptionally large. Otherwise, you can grow just about anything you want. By early spring, you can start with Dutch flower bulbs. In cold regions these can be bought already grown or you can grow your own.
Try hyacinths with pansies or early tulips or daffodils interspersed with grape hyacinths, or basket of gold and arabis with scillas, chionodoxas or leucojum. Include some sweet-smelling English daisies and wall flowers so common in planter gardening in Western Europe. Violas, blue phlox, aubretia, and forget-me-nots are other possibilities.
The favorite plant in gardening with planters is the geranium: red or pink for the white boxes, cream or light or dark blue; white for brown, blue or red boxes. The variegated vinca of family trailing is excellent with them. Thriving in sun or shade, periwinkle needs constant pinching to prevent it from getting too long. English and German ivy are other trailers for sun or shade. In the sun, short annuals, dwarf marigolds, lobelias, and verbenas form beautiful borders, as does sweet alyssum, in white, purple, or lavender. Petunias rival geraniums in popularity, and any type can be planted, although balcony types have the advantage of gracefully creeping up the sides of the garden with planters.
In the shade that is open to the sky, such as on the north side of a house, the coleus grows magnificently, with white and green types, a beautiful contrast to those with red and pink leaves. Coleus delights in rich soil and requires a lot of moisture. Pinch to keep them bushy and to enhance the appearance, remove blue spiked flowers, unless you particularly like them. The Trailing Queen coleus is one of the best.
Other shade-tolerant climbing plants include English ivy and its varieties, Creeping Jenny, Kenilworth ivy, Creeping fig, German ivy, Ground variegated gills, Myrtle, Wandering Jew, Zebrina, Achimenes, Chlorophyte, Star of Bethlehem, or Italian . bluebell and strawberry begonia.
These are just a few tips for planting your gardens with planters. Get creative with colors and texture. Window box gardening, like container gardening, will become your next favorite hobby.
Happy landscaping gardening!
Copyright © 2006 Mary Hanna All rights reserved.
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