Window Boxes, take two

This is our second year with window boxes.  Last year they were quite colorful, but I couldn't help thinking that we could make them work for us.  (Notice a theme on our patch of land?  We only keep pets that can pull their own weight; why shouldn't a window box be held to the same standard?)

Besides a few pansies for color and some pretty little nameless white flowers that should spill over nicely to add visual appeal, everything in the box is either edible or on the list as a nectar source for honeybees.  Some, like thyme, even do both.  In some of our window boxes, the ivy from last year overwintered.  It looks a little brown, but I left it in to see how it would recover.

My oldest son helped me with this project and was surprised to see how many flowers are "named after" Harry Potter characters. (Lily, Pansy, Petunia, etc.)  The box beneath his bedroom window has a Lupine in honor of this amazing phenomenon (since his favorite HP character is Lupin). He wanted to install a Harry Potter garden, which is a great idea.  Maybe next year...

A Window with a View

If you recall from my garden wish list, I have been hoping for something to spruce up the very bare part of our house that we see from the patio.

I am happy to report that this wish has come true in the form of my Mothers' Day gift-- window boxes! It has taken a few weeks for R to install them, but today I finally prettied them up.

The nursery was overwhelming, so I immediately latched onto the first employee who could tolerate me.  She was kind enough to show me all the options available to someone with my sort of light exposure (full sun until afternoon).  Being the kind of person I am (no plan at all) I put plants into my cart, put more plants into my cart, took out the plants that didn't look right, got more plants, took out more plants, and so on. My enthusiastic nursery staff person put up with that for a little while and then said, "I'll leave you do your decision-making." I settled on ivy, trailing verbena, geranium, vinca, and magilla perilla (why do I want to call it 'gorilla'??).