A View with a Room August 7, 2009

Finally remembered to take the camera out with me to get a few pictures of the window boxes from street level. As you can see (hopefully) they’re too overflowing to turn around from inside any more so they’ll stay like this until the frosts come back and it’s time for the winter clothes to return. After spending the first few months thinking months ahead now I’m trying to do the opposite and just live in the moment – dismissing all thought of colder, shorter days.

The pictures below show just how much the nasturtiums have taken over. They were all planted directly into the boxes from seed after my idea of transplanting from seedlings proved to be a failure. Seeing how quickly they’ve grown now however I know that next year I don’t need to worry about getting them off to an early start.

Try, try again July 18, 2009

It hasn’t all been a success story although the way the window boxes look at the moment I have no idea where I would have put anything else. It wasn’t the intention to grow everything from seed but unfortunately some seeds just didn’t work as well as others so they needed a bit of a boost from some shop-bought specimens like these pink petunias.

While I thought I was starting a bit early (looking back I see it was late Jan\Early Feb that I sowed my first geranium seeds) some of the seedlings still weren’t ready for planting out and ultimately I was too late in sowing Impatiens and Nemesia in particular. Neither really got going and by the time I was planting up the few that had made it into seedlings were much too weak for them to stand a chance.

Planting .. Maggie May 27, 2009

I shouldn’t really admit to having favourites but Maggie was my first window box and sits proudly on the longest window ledge in the house, facing front and looking out on the world. This position gets a gentle touch of morning sun but from late morning only benefits from reflected light rather than direct sun. If I was more experienced I’d be able to tell you what flowers would be best for this type of spot but I’m not, so it still trial and error for this year.

At 30″ inches long it’s also one of the two (along with Chris) big boxes and you can really pack the plants into them. Even with all my seed growing since January there still wasn’t enough good quality plants to cover all the boxes but Maggie had to get her fair share.

Planting … Joel May 26, 2009

I think it would be fair to say that the marigolds were both planted too shallow and more than ready to be planted elsewhere.

This picture of the extensive root system was repeated in all eight of the marigolds that were grown from seed. It’s quite satisfying to see just how much they’ve developed and they must like the conditions they were grown in. Some others like the nemesia and convolvulus haven’t fared so well while the verbena and brachycome have grown quite slowly and are still weak even though they’ve had lots of light and heat.

Planting … Ed May 25, 2009

It really was dark by the time I’d finished with Ed but this suits his temperament. Poor thing, he spends most of his time literally in the shade with hardly an ounce of direct sunlight to brighten up those corners.

With that in mind the geraniums were left for other boxes but, more in hope than expectation, three strong looking marigolds were planted. I really hope they flower as they would provide a nice consistent look across the three boxes at this side of the house, but if they don’t then it’ll be another little lesson learned and something to consider again next year.

Planting … Chris May 23, 2009

I really do feel a bit bad for Chris. Out there on his own ledge, doing his own thing, travelling the path less travelled. And in this case, getting a random mix of everything that wasn’t getting used somewhere else.

The phrase ‘runt of the litter’ might be a bit harsh but the reality is that this is where all the strong, well-developed plants ran out. No geraniums, marigolds or shop-bought plants here. Instead it was a rather sad mix of verbena, asters, sweet pea and brachycome – none of which looked truly ready to flourish outdoors.

Unfortunately for them, and for Chris, this has become my experimental box. The remaining seedlings were basically split 50/50 between being planted outside and remaining indoors on the sunny ledge. We’ll see how they compare in a couple of weeks.

Planting … Holling May 22, 2009

We’ll start off with a prettier picture this time as there’s only so much scratchy handwriting that’s interesting.

Here we have the finished window box which looks an awful lot scrappier than the lovely ones in the window box book I reviewed a while back. That book has lots of healthy, upright and flowering plants pictured in folksy locations and they really are a joy to look at.

This blog however is the ‘warts and all’ variety of gardening so here we are, at the end of lots of planning, growing and tlc, and yet it still looks like a bunch of plants have been hapharzardly thrown into a plastic container. Ho hum!

Planting … Shelly May 21, 2009

I’m nothing if not thorough – and a little over-prepared as you can see from the chicken scatchings on the left. This was my final plan for planting the boxes, which along with a spreadsheet … yes, I have a spreadsheet to keep track of what I planted, where and how much I had left … helped me make sure I used everything I had available. And before you say it, yes, I do recognise the insanity of all this.

Each box had its own little diagram (this isn’t making it sound any better) although I still managed to ever-so-slightly mess up by changing my mind and then being unable to read my own handwriting. What that says about all that pre-planning I’ll leave you to decide.

Planting the Window Boxes II May 19, 2009

Having gathered everything together, and concocted a planting scheme, the next step was to systematically work my way through each box, trying not to mix everything up on the way.

Counting all the possible seedlings and plants, I had 105 plants at my disposal, six of which were shop-bought. The geraniums and marigold, which had been on the go for the longest time, were quite sturdy and matched up well to the purchased plants. Others like the verbena, brachycome and nasturium were much smaller and leggier.

This made me wonder whether I was doing the right thing in planting them now but I didn’t think they were going to improve much more being kept inside rather than being outside and having time to root properly so these five plants made up the core of my planting scheme. Overall I knew I needed about 75 plants so the remaining ones would be kept as spares and will provide a comparison in terms of development.

Weekend Work – Part 4 May 15, 2009

This is turning into a bit of a mini-series but I wanted to go into some depth about replanting the boxes. Partly so that I can refer back once I see how things develop and partly in case any new gardeners stumble upon the site and want to know about each stage.

I was largely inspired to write this blog because I couldn’t find the kind of advice I wanted online so thought I’d share my experiences as I went so that others could perhaps could get the benefit.