Garden Spaces: Joyful Windows

Enlarge Image Image Gallery You'll have a ready supply of edible petals and foliage with a window planter. These planters utilize, from left: fernleaf dill, English lavender, 'Spicy Globe' basil, pinks, calendula, 'Lemon Gem' marigolds, chives, scented geraniums, nasturtiums and violets. Gayle Ford

Cheerful window boxes can improve your view, whether you’re looking from the inside or outside of your home.

With herb-filled window boxes, beauty and usefulness go hand in hand. You can fill your boxes with color, fragrance and flavor, and put on a bright show for the neighborhood at the same time. Best of all, you’ll have a ready supply of edible petals and foliage to snip onto salads or add to a bottle of vinegar.

These two companion boxes are designed to be used together on a pair of windows that have sunny exposure. The blooms’ colors mirror and balance each other. The bright pink of the chive pompons reflects the bright pink of the dianthus, just as the intense purple of the sweet violets echoes the deep purple of the lavender spikes. Similarly, calendula’s gaudy orange petals repeat the gold-orange hues of the marigolds and nasturtiums.

For interesting contrasts in foliage and form, the boxes include a mound of feathery dill, ‘Spicy Globe’ basil with tiny leaves, branching scented geraniums with rounded leaves and a clump of spiky chives.

These are just 10 of the many herbal possibilities for window boxes. Although some people prefer orderly groupings of five or six identical plants per box, with bloom colors that complement their home, I’ve gone for a different look—one that is less tidy but more bountiful. I think of it as a cottage-garden version of a window box. These little gardens would look particularly splendid in white boxes against a white house.

Choose a window box planting style that suits you. If you decide you don’t like it, simply change it next season.

Box Basics

Window boxes are available in a wide variety of materials, including plastic, fiberglass, rot-resistant wood, pottery, wire and wicker (with sphagnum moss liners). Keep in mind that the box will be heavy when it’s filled with potting soil, plants and water, so look for a material that’s lightweight yet durable. Whatever you choose, be sure the boxes have adequate drainage. If the drainage holes aren’t big enough, enlarge them or add more.

Most window boxes must be mounted with brackets and screws. When mounting them, remember to add spacers (narrow strips of wood attached to the back of the boxes) so that water drains away from the house, not down the side.

If you’re concerned about the weight of the boxes against your house, one option is to not use soil inside the box. Instead, nestle individual potted plants inside the box and cover the surface with moss. (That’s also a good way to see how they’ll look before you plant them.) The plants will grow larger if planted in soil inside the box, however, as their roots will have more room to grow.

Care and Feeding

Use a potting mix with some peat moss to help retain moisture, as well as some perlite to improve drainage. Window boxes are like any container garden in that they need regular attention, particularly when first planted. Sun, wind and heat reflected off the house can dry them out quickly, so check them daily and water thoroughly when soil feels dry an inch below the surface.