Good Morning!

It will be a short and sweet post today, as I will be heading out of town for the weekend. It’s going to be a beautiful, sunny weekend for us, though I wish we would get some more rain. Western New York is “abnormally dry”. Our lawn is brown!

And because we have had so little rain, we need to water everything– most importantly, container plants– window boxes. ( That was a pretty good segue, I think!)

Of course, this leads me into the subject of the post– window boxes. For the first time, I received Proven Winners gardeners idea book for some ideas on how to change things up in my window boxes.

I was not let down– I pretty much wanted to copy two different window box ideas in the book, but couldn’t find some of the flowers– they were sold out!

So, I improvised. And it was great anyway!

*Do not be afraid to try different combinations of plants for your window boxes.*

We are so used to going to our local nursery and getting the same things — geraniums, marigolds, creeping jenny, spikes (don’t worry, I purchased the last two anyway because I love them). And if you like those plants, there is no need to change them! We as gardeners tend not to look beyond the same, familiar flowers just by habit. We don’t look past the “norm” and see all the great, different plants you can put in your window boxes!

That’s why I love this idea book from Proven Winners. It gave me insight on plants I would never think of putting in a window box.

My window boxes for the front of my house contain:

L to R: Coleus (Alligator Tears), Chenile (the red fuzzy plant), Sweet potato vine (yellow leaves) and capped off with another Coleus.

The red fuzzy plant called Chenile I actually saw at the Farmer’s Market in a basket. I was browsing the nursery a month later and found them in packs. I just HAD to add that. So different!

I have discovered the great shade/part sun annual Coleus this year. There are so many varieties at your local nursery. I recommend them to anyone with lots of shady spots in your landscape!

The window box I have on my daughter’s swing set contains:

 

Bottom to Top: Coleus (Kong Red); Sweet Alyssum ( tiny purple flowers); Black Sweet Potato Vine. I have each of these plants in this particular box as every other. 

So please, take a look at some different flowers for your window boxes if you haven’t already done so. It’s amazing the beautiful combinations you can make it look beyond your typical flowers!