WINDOW-BOXES AND PORCH-BOXES l8i 



sary to pot them and care for them carefully until they are 

 fairly established, when they may be transferred to the 

 window garden. 



Two methods of planting the window-box are open to 

 one. The first is to set the plants directly into the soil, 

 allowing the roots to ramify in all directions and to inter- 

 mingle as they will. This has the advantage of giving a 

 greater opportunity for root development, and, on the whole, 

 for most plants is likely to give surer and better results. It 

 has the disadvantage, however, that the plants once started 

 cannot be changed in position or removed without serious 

 interference with their growth. The other method is to leave 

 the plants in good-sized pots, which are sunk into the soil so 

 that the roots of the plants are practically confined to the 

 pots, although after a considerable period some of them may 

 escape through the hole in the bottom or over the surface of 

 the top. This method has the obvious advantage of enabling 

 one to take out a plant at any time and replace it by another 

 without serious disturbance to the box as a whole. It also 

 has the advantage of enabling one to turn a plant around 

 occasionally, so that if it starts to have a one-sided develop- 

 ment, on account of the greater exposure to sunlight of that 

 side, this may be avoided. The method chosen may well 

 vary with the differing conditions. Not infrequently it may 

 be desirable to adopt both in the same box, placing the vines 

 along the margins of the box directly in the soil and setting 

 the plants along the middle in pots. The pots, of course, 

 should be completely submerged, in order that there may 

 not be unnecessary drying of the roots. 



