My Windowbox

Summer Planting
Bring the garden to your window all year round

The Iron and Stone Windowbox gives you flexibility to change your plant display whenever your mood or the season changes. Simply lift out your pots or troughs and replace with different ones.

June, July, August

Now is the time to grow your own vegetables and herbs. Nurseries and garden centres are full of young vegetable plants. If you have bars on your windows as many urban basement flats do, use them to train your runner beans and truss up your tomatoes. Remember to water regularly as ground floor window boxes may be in the building’s rain shadow.

Tomato varieties: Tumbling Toms, Tigerella and Gardener’s Delight.

Runner bean varieties: Veitch’s Climbing, Coco Bicolour and Czar. There are many bush and dwarf varieties too.

Perennial salads varieties such as: Rocket, Dandelion, Chickweed, Claytonia, Sorrel, Good King Henry and Fat Hen will keep you going through summer and winter.

And what about spinach? Try New Zealand spinach. Slow to bolt and frost withstanding. Have fresh greens throughout the year.

Basil can be difficult to grow so try the small leafed varieties rather than the broad.

For more ideas and information on growing vegetables and herbs, have a look at: The Edible Container Garden by Michael Guerra, published by Gaaia Books. ISBN 1-85675-220-8 www.gaiabooks.co.uk.

Plants for the Summer

Mix foliage such as Coleus, available in a huge selection of colours or the silver greys Helichrysum and Sennecio with annuals. Good choices are Verbenas and Marguerites as they have a long summer flowering period providing you dead-head regularly. They come in a wide range of colours. Diascia, a semi hardy perennial, provides a summer long bloom but remember to cut back for a second flowering.

Pelargoniums are tough and will handle some neglect. What about Lady Plymouth, a cream, L’Elegante a beautiful pale mauve or Lord Bute, a deep burgundy red.

For a dazzling white display, mix white Marguerites with white Geraniums and the evergreen green and white shrub Pittosporum.

Shady and Semi-Shady Window Boxes

Ferns such as Conubiense, Polystichum Aculeatum (Hardy Shield Fern) and Adiantum (Maidenhair Fern) like the shade. Intersperse, once frost is over, with bright orange Begonias and pale pink Impatiens. For attractive foliage with tiny spikes of flowers add Heuchera which comes in a range of colours from lime green to purple or the variegated Euonymus Shady window boxes are ideal places to grow Lettuces, and other greens. Parsley, Chives and Mint do well too in shadier spots.

Sunny Window Boxes

Convolvulus, Geraniums, and Pelargoniums, Nasturtiums, and Petunias (try Petunia x Hybrida which has small lemon-yellow flowers that are less easily damaged by rain) all thrive in sunny spaces. Or why not Erysimum Apricot Twist. Intersperse with silver-grey Senecio, Plectostachys or Artemesia. And there are always the climbers: Morning Glory and Black-eyed Susan. Basil, Oregano and Marjoram, and Thyme, the Mediterranean herbs, all enjoy a sunny position.

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