Di Goodwin shows young gardeners how to plant up a window box with pretty annuals.
Your spring garden should be filled with plants which will give you lots of pleasure later in the season. However, you don't have to view your plants from afar! In fact, you can bring them right up to your windows by planting them in window boxes. Window boxes are very easy to plant up and there are lots of different ones that you can buy, whether they are made of plastic or asbestos. The asbestos ones can be painted in bright colours to match your surroundings. For impact, use a maximum of three (flower) colours in your window box.
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1. What you need: Window box, potting soil, stones, small fork and trowel, small plants. |
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2. Here Dean, Jeanine and Dayne are putting a layer of gravel in the bottom of the window box. This stops the soil from getting too soggy when it is watered. |
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3. Half fill the box with good potting soil. |
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4. Decide how much light your window box will receive then choose your flowers accordingly. You can use cascading petunias, alyssum, geraniums, nasturtiums for sunny positions and impatiens and begonias for shady spots. Asparagus fern and ivy make excellent green foliage plants for both sunny and shady areas. Space your plants about 20cm apart. Place the taller plants near the centre at the back letting the 'trailers' cascade over the edges. |
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5. Fill in around each plant with the potting soil. |
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6. When all the plants are in place and the box is full, water thoroughly. |
Window boxes tend to dry out very quickly, so your plants will probably require daily watering. In hot, windy weather, containers should be checked twice a day. They will also need liquid fertiliser once a week.
