Sunday 18 October 2015

A sunny window: how we made our window boxes


I've talked before about my love of flowers, and this weekend we finally got round to making something that's been on the to do list for ages - window boxes for our front window. It was SO much fun, made me SO happy and looks so blimmin' ace that I implore anyone reading this to whip up a window box or two - it's guaranteed to make you smile very time you get home, and it's also been an instant mood lifter every time I look out of the window. The whole thing took less than an hour to do and was so easy I thought I'd share the joy - here's how it went:


STEP ONE: go shopping (aka the fun bit). First of all, we went to the garden centre to pick up some supplies - here's what we got (L-R): a 25l bag of compost, 4 x trays of 'bedding' flowers (each of these had six little pots in), 3 x window boxes, one long and two short, 20 x tulip bulbs, 1 x big bag of daffodil bulbs, and 3 x bigger cyclamen plants. The whole lot came to about £45 and we actually ended up with more than we could fit in our three boxes, which we used to fill a few extra flower pots of various sizes by our front door, so you could do this with less if you wanted. 


STEP TWO: drill a few holes. Our window boxes didn't have any holes in, so we used a drill to make some holes in the bottom to make sure the water could drain through. This was actually a lot of fun and I probably got a bit carried away and drilled a few more holes than were strictly needed.

STEP THREE: plant some bulbs. We wanted to make sure we'd always have something flowering all through the year, so we planted some bulbs underneath the surface to pop through in the spring when other things will have died down. We got a mixture of tulip and daffodil bulbs and planted them in a couple of inches of compost.


STEP FOUR: get some flowers in! We put one cyclamen in the middle of each box - we'd bought one that was a bit bigger than the other two, which went in the longer box.

STEP FIVE: fill the gaps. Then the bedding flowers went in either side to fill the gaps - we did this by eye and tried a few different combinations until it looked about right. My favourite of all the flowers we picked up were the ones below that look like big daisies with a hint of pink on the petals, and as these were quite tall, one went on either side of the cyclamen in the long window box, to add a bit of height either side. Each box had a trailing flower on each end, and then we used little bedding flowers to fill any gaps.


STEP SIX: put them in place and water like mad. Then came the fun bit - putting the boxes in place! We used some small wooden blocks to sit the pots on so they would drain, and then watered them. And watered them again. And then gave them another water for good measure. They basically need to be completely, ridiculously watered.

STEP SEVEN: admire your handiwork. FOR LIKE EVER, because you'll see them every day, and they're just going to get better and better as the flowers grow and fill out the gaps.

So that's it - super easy, and super fun too. As Alex is a landscape gardener, he gave me lots of tips along the way - here's what I learnt:
  • When it comes to flower arranging, visually it works to have an odd number of plants 
  • Things need a lot more watering than you think they do
  • You can't necessarily just buy all the flowers you think are prettiest, otherwise I'd have window boxes full of pink flowers and it would all look a bit 'matchy matchy'. After some persuasion from Alex, I realised that you need a mixture of colours, heights and types of flowers to look natural and set each other off 
  • Referring to compost as 'mud' in front of a landscape gardener, even if the first time was a genuine mistake, and the second was meant as a joke, will not go down well
  • Novelty watering cans, no matter how cute they seemed at the time, just AREN'T efficient pourers, as Arlo discovered during one of the many watering sessions...




Home Etc

19 comments:

  1. Oh they are so pretty and so simple to do. I always love walking past houses that have lots of window boxes - always guaranteed to make me smile. :)

    Jenna at Tinyfootsteps xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jenna - I feel the same, they make me smile every time I come home, so glad we did it! xx

      Delete
  2. Gorgeous! And what a brilliant idea to put bulbs in for the Spring. I never thought of that and end up re-doing my window boxes a few times a year as a result.
    What is it with window boxes having no holes? We had to drill ours too.
    I love these kind of jobs around the house that are quick, cheap and easy and look SO good.
    #HomeEtc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, and I totally agree - any job that's maximum output for minimum input suits me! xx

      Delete
  3. Totally gorgeous and as you say you will be admiring and enjoying these fab window boxes every single day. Well done you, love them.
    Popping over from #HomeEtc linky
    Sammy x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sammy - they've cheered me up on many a grey day lately :) xx

      Delete
  4. Beautiful window boxes! I would have never thought about planting bulbs now so that they come up in the spring. Xxx #HomeEtc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! It was my other half's idea to do the bulbs, I never would've thought of it, fingers crossed they come up! xx

      Delete
  5. The window boxes are so pretty and what a great project that you can all enjoy working on together. I'm not very good at all with plants so thanks for the tips X #HomeEtc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks and me neither - we actually have a running joke in my house about my lack of green-fingeredness because I have killed of many poor house plants over the years! Hopefully these ones buck the trend :) xx

      Delete
  6. They look absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I bet you're pleased with how they turned out! We haven't any window ledges on the outside of this house so no window boxes for me!! Booooo :/ Thanks so much for linking up with us on #HomeEtc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Caro - really chuffed, can't believe how easy these were! We also potted some flowers into different size pots which are sitting by the front door and look lovely too - you can never have enough flowers if you ask me :) xx

      Delete
  7. can you come over and do mine for me! Love them. Have been meaning to do something like this for ages, the to do list just keeps getting longer!! xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe - these had been on my to do list for AGES too, so glad I finally got round to it, I would totally recommend! xx

      Delete
  8. Oh it's soooo pretty! And that's a good idea putting bulbs underneath the flowers, so there'll always be something growing. And odd numbers eh, I've learnt something new! xx #HomeEtc

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have to admit that I had some boxes like this but didn't think to drill holes in them - what a great idea! They look so pretty and are the perfect addition to your windows - great job :) Thank you for linking to #PoCoLo x

    ReplyDelete
  10. So pretty and bright! Great idea and superb photographs. Love seeing window boxes outside peoples homes. Thanks for linking up - loved this post. Jess xx

    #HomeEtc

    ReplyDelete
  11. They look great - and are a fab way to bring some colour to the outside. And those watering cans are fab too, I'm tempted to ditch my dull green one in favour of something much funkier! :) #homeetc

    ReplyDelete