228 APPENDIX 



The window-box gardener has perfect command over 

 his resources. He can sum up his advantages as well as 

 his disadvantages and control his results with the success 

 of one who sows and reaps in larger grounds. The soil 

 can be prepared, the moisture controlled, storms averted, 

 and, the sunlight having been measured, the crops can be 

 regulated accordingly. 



The artistic possibilities of window boxes as accessory 

 decorations to a residence or even to an estate, for their 

 use can be extended to summer houses, barns, and the rail- 

 ings of bridges and arched ways, may be carried as far as 

 the imagination of the gardener will go. The humblest 

 shack can be turned into an artistic bungalow and the cot- 

 tage of dreary surroundings be made a beauty spot by a 

 few plants in boxes on the window sills. 



A touch of color given by scarlet geraniums, relieved by 

 the white of feverfew and daisies, the green of their own 

 foliage, and an edge of yellow-eyed musk above trailing 

 sprays of silver-leaved myrtle or the glossy English ivy 

 in the most ordinary of window boxes, against a brown 

 painted wooden wall or the dull brick of the commonplace 

 house, creates a picture. None of these plants are rare 

 and all endure more than the average neglect of a busy 

 housekeeper and will thrive in a dry summer. 



The practical person asks first of all for the box itself. 

 With money in the purse one may purchase a patent con- 

 trivance, self-watering, safely drained, and fitted to the 



