The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



window-sills. The ready-to-use metal boxes are 

 very handy and satisfactory, but not as attractive 

 as simple boxes made of wood to match the stand- 

 ing woodwork of the room; these should have a 

 metal lining to protect the woodwork and if the 

 expense of boxes of hardwood in a rented flat 

 seems undesirable, very simple boxes of cheap 

 wood may be made to -imitate the hardwood finish 

 by giving a covering of the paper or wood pulp 

 that comes in all the natural hardwood finishes. 

 This is simply pasted on the boxes and when dry 

 should be given a coat of sizing-glue dissolved in 

 hot water to a thin paste, and when this is dry 

 a coat of varnish or jap-a-lac. This will be 

 so successful that few casual observers will de- 

 tect the substitution. A very pretty plant box 

 can be evolved from a single cheese box, cut 

 down a couple of inches covered with the paper 

 and supplied with legs or mounted on a small 

 lamp stand, or white enamel will be charming, es- 

 pecially when the box is filled with blooming 

 tulips or narcissi, or given over to ferns, aspara- 

 gus vines and the like. 



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