How to Plant a Cottage-Style Window Box

What brings to mind the cozy look of a cottage more than a window box?  At least that's what I thought when we first moved into our small cottage-esque starter home so many years ago.  While our house is not quaint or very special on its own, adding a large custom built window box made it feel more like the cottage inspired home and garden we were looking for.
  

My love of the cottage look is in the small collection of flower beds surrounding our home.  I define cottage-style as a loose, informal grouping of classic annual flowers reminiscent of times gone by.  I don't stick with any strict rules that they have to be cottage flowers, but it's more of an unconstrained, informal type planting.  No orderly plantings here, but only what feels like you would find in a field of wildflowers.  So here is some loose guidelines for you to plant your own amazing cottage style window box.


1. Start with a great loose soil that is has potting soil and a mix of perilite, vermiculite or other soil lightener. 
Great soil is always key when container planting.  You want something that has good drainage, is light yet is able to retain enough moisture that you don't have to water constantly.  I have to admit I reuse my soil year after year and freshen it up with every new planting.  I've yet to have any problems with soil disease (thankfully) and it has saved me lots of $$$.  You can decide if you want to do this...the flowers I plant are very hardy and as you can see, it doesn't affect their growth. 
 

 2. Choose plants that are tall, medium and spreading.
Here I have Tall Ageratum in the back, Black and Blue Salvia in the middle section alone.  I also have Zinnia "White Profusion" on the ends with begonias tucked in here and there for a shot of bright color.
This is basic when planting a one sided container.  Tall growers in the back and medium or spreading plants in the front depending on the growing space in your box.  It's important to use "untidy" flowers in order to get that free form cottage look.  Really read your flower labels and check out other planters in the garden center to get ideas from what they've created.  Don't be afraid to ask them what plants they used when you find something you like.
  

3. Try to use some unusual or uncommon flowers in your box and fill in with less expensive flowers.
The salvias are a bit pricey, but I find I only need two of them to fill out the box.  They grow quickly and I don't have to wait long for the box itself to become lush with flowers.  I like to buy flats of other easy to grow and common flowers to use in the box and my other containers.
I also like to "overplant" my flowers in order to get them to fill in quickly.  I can do this when the flowers aren't overly expensive.  Impatiens and begonias are flower varieties that fill out quickly and are great for shade.   

4. Look for butterfly and hummingbird flower varieties.
The salvia I use every year because they attract hummingbirds like crazy.  I would much rather plant flowers to attract them than use feeders as I don't want to keep up the feeders.  I know it sounds lazy, but what can I say...I'm being honest!
These salvia get quite tall and the first year I planted them I was embarrassed by their height.  However, once the hummingbirds came, I was all about these beauties.  By planting such tall flowers, I have a great view of them AND the wildlife from inside the house. The ageratum and zinnia attract lots of butterflies too.

5. Be sure to use a long term fertilizer followed by a liquid fertilizer. 
This is essential for a beautiful window box.  Fertilize ( I use an organic one) and water daily once summer's heat hits. My early flower box plantings were less than impressive until I talked to a friend who had a beautiful box.  I asked her the secret and she said to fertilize it.  Simple enough but so important to get that lush growth and amazing blooms that make your garden really stand out.

That's it.  Nothing too complicated but so wonderful to look at.  My favorite thing to plant every year is our double window flower box.  I always like to imagine what it will look like year after year as I tend to experiment with flower choices (except the salvia).  

Hope this inspires you to be creative this year with your plantings.  Have fun!  

What's your favorite cottage -style flower?

For more on flower plantings, check out my post...Container Plant How-To's

Blessings!

Simple Lives Thursday

 

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Community Gardens: A Few Things to Consider

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Apartment dwellers, gardeners with limited space, people who are looking to share their garden experiences and new gardeners can all benefit from a community or a shared garden.  We've been a part of shared gardens for years before we got a plot at a new community garden in our area.

Our first shared garden experience involved driving a good 20-25 minutes to even get there.  A friend of ours shared a few rows of their garden space with us because we wanted to expand our tomato crop.    We learned a few things from sharing the space that helped us as we eventually gardened with another friend some years later even farther away from us!  Our community plot is only about 5 minutes down the road and has obviously worked the best for us.  

So here's a quick look at the upside and downside of sharing a garden space.

Our very small backyard garden

Why even consider community or shared gardens?

Lack of space, space, space!!  That is the reason that prompted us to look outside of our own space at first.  We actually wanted to grow lots of tomatoes to preserve, so we were looking to plant more. Having much more room to plant means opening up your options for more variety of vegetables.

To keep your yard freed up for other uses.  We know one gardening family that have a very large yard, but it bordered on a woods and the deer ravaged it year after year. For them, it was easier to grow it off premises and keep their yard wide open for their two young daughters.  

To learn from other gardeners.   Our second shared gardening experience was with a senior who had been tilling the soil for years.  He not only shared garden space with us, but also introduced us to new varieties and shared his growing wisdom as well.  It's amazing how much we don't know about gardening at times, and being able to talk to others who are planting in the same soil conditions helps a lot.  Seeing other people's plots in a community garden gives you new ideas for setting up your own garden space too.  I always study what others are doing and copy what looks like is working for them. 

 Some advantages of shared or community gardening:

Bonus Plants: No matter where we gardened, we always enjoyed bonuses...plants being one of them.  A community garden is an easy place to share, swap and exchange plants with others growers.  Our community garden has a covered shed where extra plants are available for those in need.  One year we were given a bunch of hot peppers.  We didn't want to grow too many so we gave our extras to some Hispanic gardeners who were happy to take them off of our hands.  We also were able to plant extras or left overs from other people's gardens which gave us some different veggies to try without any money risk of our own.  It's nice to share and trade, it creates a great way to get to know other gardeners.

Bonus Vegetables: Last year, we were able to give away our zucchini extras and allow other gardeners to try an heirloom variety that they found out they loved!  We often would harvest vegetables and either give away or trade for something we weren't growing.  We got a spaghetti squash last year for some winter squash, giving us a break from the overload of produce.  We still had more than plenty for fresh eating and preserving.  We like to grow an abundance so we can give it away as well...

Bonus Friendships: Our community garden is located behind a large local church and we were able to reconnect with friends from there and meet different people around us.  It's always great to cultivate new friendships.

The Disadvantages?

Traveling to your garden.  This means you have to carry your tools with you unless your community or shared garden offers storage or shared tools.  


Having to be more organized about working in the garden.  It's important to work in the garden 2-3 times a week in the beginning of planting, to water and weed.  If not - weeds will quickly wreak havoc in your garden.  Once the garden is established, we usually go once a week to water if needed and to keep up with weeds. We need to go more often once harvest begins. Sometimes it's easy to forget a garden, so planning on what days to go is crucial. 

Following the community garden's rules.  Every  community garden needs rules in order to keep peace and structure.  It's important to be supportive of the rules and guidelines in order to respect and honor the vision of the garden.  You will want to be on friendly terms with other growers and know if its vision will be compatible with your gardening beliefs.  Also, you will want to consider if you're willing to compromise in any area.

Having to adjust to different growing conditions. I thought I knew a lot about gardening until we started gardening in other places.  All of sudden, we had to deal with different soil conditions, sometimes different frost zones, different plant diseases and especially different insect pests.  In our community garden, we planted tomatoes but were flanked by potato growers.  This caused a huge surge in the potato beetle population which in turn worked on devouring our tomatoes and ruining our eggplant.  Also, the soil was so sandy that our first crop of green beans plants were the size of a full grown green bean.  We were ready to give up, but found that other crops that didn't do well at our house were thriving at this garden.  So we gave up on the tomatoes, (grew them successfully again at home) but planted root crops for a few years until we built the soil up.  So this I look at a disadvantage, but also as an advantage.

A few more tips to consider:

Be purposeful about what you plant.  Vegetables such as green beans, and onions can easily get lost in weeds AND it can happen fast.  If you only want to visit your garden once a week, these crops won't do as well.  I'm speaking this from experience! We grow lots of summer and winter squash as they are much easier to keep up with and grow better at the community garden than in our backyard space.

Consider mulching to conserve water and suppress weeds.  We mulch heavily with black and white newspaper topped with straw to keep up with the never ending weeds.  Shredded leaves are another great resource.


Overall, our shared gardening experiences have been well worth the extra work.  We are able to grow abundant vegetables there that the insects will ravage a few miles away and it's been working for us for a number of years now. This is a great bonus when gardening without using pesticides.

Even if you have plenty of space to garden, you may want to consider garden lending to help someone else out.  If you do, it would be important to establish rules and guidelines in order to maintain your relationship with those who are gardening with you.  It's a great way to teach a new gardener too and pass on valuable information to others in your community.

Have you ever gardened with someone else or in a community garden?  What was your favorite experience from it?



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