20 The New Practical Window Gardener. 



choosing, and it accords best with the flowers when 

 growing in it. You can have it nicely done in imitation 

 stone-work hy painting it of a stone colour and while 

 the paint is wet dusting it over with silver sand. Taste 

 must guide you in the decoration afterwards ; all lines, 

 however, must be drawn quite straight and the parts of 

 designs well balanced, so that there be nothing ill drawn 

 to mar the beauty of the flowers, for a neat, clean, well 

 painted box adds greatly to the efiect, and is always a 

 credit to the person interested. Never paint the inside 

 of a box, for plants do not like paint. 



I have seen people make nice little wooden boxes 

 much in the shape of a pot but square, which looked 

 very neat and answered the purpose well. A little 

 taste can be displayed in ornamenting them. 



I must particularly tell you that the window box 

 should be raised up a little from the window sill for 

 the sake of drainage, and to keep the woodwork from 

 spoiling in any way. The best plan is to have iron 

 rests fastened firmly to the window sill to stand the box 

 on, with a catch at the ends to prevent the box from 

 being toppled over at any time by accident. You must 

 also see that the box has proper means for drainage ; 

 five or six holes should be bored through the bottom. 



If you have not an auger to bore holes with, the 

 kitchen poker heated red-hot will answer admirably. 

 The holes should be about an inch in diameter. If 

 the bottom of the box were made in two pieces and an 

 open slit one quarter of an inch wide left between them 

 it would answer the purpose well. A window box 

 made of lead or sheet iron though more expensive at 



