Chives blooming in a railing planter.

There are few things prettier than a really nice window box.  It can share its beauty both inside and out.  But the problem with window boxes…. well, there are several problems with window boxes, especially if you live in an older house.

If you live in an older house, it’s very possible that your windows are difficult to open and close.  That makes getting to a window box a pain.  Either you have to deal with the trouble of getting that old single pane, 20 times painted over, broken sashed window open every day (and then dealing with that old screen) OR you have to get to it from the outside, which usually means either stepladders or bushes.  Or both.   Aarrrggggh.

And if you don’t get to it every day, there’s a good chance that the window box will dry out.  There is so little dirt, and so little moisture, that window boxes dry out very quickly, especially if they get direct sun (which you probably want because you probably want flowers in your window box).  Arrrgggggh.

Solution:  put the window box somewhere other than in a window.  The photo above was our solution.  It’s on a stair rail leading from the back deck (now porch) to the yard.  We walk past it every day, so we always get to 1) enjoy it and 2) water it.

We built it.  It was really easy and was a good way of using up scrap lumber.  We lined it with plastic and allowed for drainage.  We also placed some attractive stones on the top to help with moisture retention.

If you’re handy with tools, you can probably figure out how to do it just from looking at the photos.  If you’re not handy with tools….   Well, show the photo to someone who is handy with tools and get them to build it for you.  I just sort of made it up as I went along and don’t have any drawings to share with you (and I’m NOT good at drawings, anyway).

There’s nothing quite as pretty as a window box.  But this comes close, don’t you think?

Filed under: container gardening, Our Garden