338 MANUAL OF GARDENING 
since the box by its exposed position will dry out readily during 
summer weather, unless the position is a shaded one. In the 
latter case provision for good drainage is always advisable. 
Since there is more or less cramping of roots, it will be neces- 
sary to make the soil richer than would be required were the 
plants to grow in the garden. The most desirable soil is one 
that does not pack hard like clay, nor contract much when dry, 
but remains porcus and springy. Such a soil is found in the 
potting earth used by florists, and it may be obtained from them 
at 50 cents to $1 a barrel. Often the nature of the soil will be 
such as to make it desirable to have at hand a barrel of sharp 
sand for mixing with it, to make it more porous and prevent 
baking. A good filling for a deep box is a layer of clinkers or 
other drainage in the bottom, a layer of pasture sod, a layer of 
old cow manure, and fill with fertile garden earth. 
Some window-gardeners pot the plants and then set them in 
the window-box, filling the spaces between the pots with moist 
moss. Others plant them directly in the earth. The former 
methcd, as a gencral rule, is to be preferred in the winter 
window-garden; the latter in the summer. 
The plants most valuable for outside boxes are those of droop- 
ing habit, such as lobelias, tropeolums, othonna, Kenilworth 
ivy, verbena (Fig. 269), sweet alyssum, and petunia. Such 
plants may occupy the front row, while back of them may be 
the erect-growing plants, as geraniums, heliotropes, begonias 
(Plate XX). 
For shady situations the main dependence is on plants of 
graceful form or handsome foliage; while for the sunny window 
the selection may be of blooming plants. Of the plants men- 
tioned below for these two positions, those marked with an 
asterisk (*) are of climbing habit, and may be trained up about 
the sides of the window. 
Just what plants will be most suitable depends on the expo- 
sure. For the shady side of the street, the more delicate kinds of 
