Interesting question - I have two 4 foot long home-made window boxes in the front of my house, simple cedar with a tin lining, that were originally painted brown to match the trim of the white house. For years, I was infatuated with the fancy wrought iron / copper window boxes they sell in high-end catalogues - dream on.

Finally, 5 -6 six years ago, we re-painted the exterior of the house and the window boxes were painted white along with everything else, which turned out to be a good thing - the eye is drawn to the flowers, not the window box itself.

Wood is not very expensive at all, easy to change colors by painting it, the only 'cleaning' is hosing off the dirt that gets sloshed around when the box is over-watered.

I use potting soil, which forms a fairly distinct mass that the wind won't blow away.

And finally, there is a reason why all those Europeans plonk in geraniums in their window boxes - they do fine if you forget to water them for a week or so.

Thank you!

I live in Westminster. I bought some wood window boxes from Paulino's garden center last summer, but they fell completely apart a few days after I had put soil in them, and plants, and watered them!!! The seams just came apart from the moisture and the heat (front of my house is South facing, so it gets pretty hot). I took them back and thankfully, they refunded my money 'cause they cost (as I recall) around $60 or more.

My husband made some for me after that, with much thicker/stronger wood and better structurally (he put braces on the inside corners and used strong screws to keep them together). I stained them a natural brown/red, and they look nice against our sandy colored siding. They are holding up well, although they have some gaps now in a some corners from the wood swelling/drying with the weather and watering of the plants. The stain, I've noticed lately, has faded a bit so I'll probably restain them soon.

I haven't had a problem with the soil blowing out. I used potting soil as well, and lined the bottom and sides of the boxes with that coconut fiber matting to help keep the soil from drying out too fast. I put leaf mulch over the top when I put some bulbs in to help protect them a bit from the cold. No signs of growth yet, though, so hope I wasn't too early with the planting or too late using the bulbs I had stored.

David - how do your geraniums do over the winter? I love geraniums, so really like the idea of having them in my window boxes. Do they reseed, or do the plants overwinter well?

I saw some window boxes at O'Toole's Garden Center in Westminster that looked interesting. There was a wrought iron looking frame work you could buy, and then they had plastic inserts to buy that slipped inside the frame. I didn't really notice the prices, though. Just thought that maybe that would hold up better than wooden ones, and one could just get new inserts if need be over the years if the framework was still in good shape.

I also saw a neat window box idea in Country Gardens magazine, Early Spring 2011 edition. They used salvaged items to create it - a metal tray and shelf brackets,3 galvanized pails, and a vintage outdoor faucet handle. The put some soil and plants along the tray, as well as in each of the pails. I took a picture of the page from the magazine:

If anybody's interested in the instructions for it, I can try to scan the page and post it on my Picassa page.

I love window boxes - they can really dress up and frame a window!! I'd like to find some plants that I can put in mine that could survive the winter - maybe have to alternate plants out for the season and put something like holly or little junipers. I actually opted this winter to put some silk poinsettias branches in them during Christmas :^D I know - that's cheating!! But hey, it sure brightened up the window along with my decorations, and didn't have to worry about them needing water or anything!!

Marj

Oops, forgot to mention what plants I had in mine - real ones, that is! I was experimenting with different plants, and actually haven't come up with the right ones yet. As I mentioned, the front of my house gets pretty hot and the soil dries out quickly. I had some petunias and some shamrocks, which did fairly well (I was surprised the Shamrock did as well as it did, actually). But of course, they died back in the fall.

Since I've had some xeric Ganzia plants in the other part of the front garden that did very well, and I harvested seeds from them, I've been thinking on planting them in the boxes. I did put in some Tulip bulbs a couple of weeks ago, but haven't seen any signs of them growing.

My new house won't have a decent looking yard for a while so its my plan to get 3 flower boxes to go on the railing of my front porch. I bought some seeds for annuals that I thought I might grow to eventually put into the boxes. I got some Bidens, hot pink Wave petunias and some silver Dichondra. Trailing plants are really shown to their best advantage in window or railing planters. Hmmm... I might see if I can add some trailing nasturtiums too.

I've been over-wintering large pots of geraniums now for years, prior to a greenhouse, we kept them in the garage. They need a bit of sunlight now and again, and caution on over-watering.

For the window boxes, I'll do a couple dozen cuttings - (I need to get on that) - they're very easy to propagate: Stick in potting soil.

Thank you, mstywoods!It's a good idea to put in pots. I will do that. It's great that your hb can make windowbox. I wish I could.

David and Kvenkat, geraniums should be pretty in window box.That's what I want to try.

Thanks David for your tips on the geraniums! I think I will get some this year and try to overwinter them and take the cuttings as you described. Oh and kvenkat - like your idea for trailing nasturium!! That should like really nice. Think I'll give that a try as well.

Marj

I had some geraniums at my last house. I don't know why I did not think to bring some cuttings with me when I moved here. Oh, well. I'm gonna try some new plants, but I'm glad to hear that the geraniums would be a good choice.