Window and Veranda Boxes 
becomes almost as dry as dust. In such a soil no 
plant can grow. It may live from one watering to 
another, but it cannot flourish. By and by a 
diseased condition sets in, and presently it dies. 
When a win¬ 
dow-box is first 
filled with plants 
they are small, as 
a general thing, 
and have few 
roots, and these 
are near the sur¬ 
face. When a 
small amount of 
water is applied, 
daily, the surface 
of the soil is wet 
and the few, deli¬ 
cate roots of the 
plants get all the 
moisture they 
need, therefore 
they flourish for 
a time, and the 
collection prom¬ 
ises to do well. 
But as soon as 
their roots at¬ 
tempt to reach 
down into the soil 
they get below 
the moisture-line 
and then it is 
that they cease to 
grow. This ex¬ 
plains why so 
many persons 
fail, after think¬ 
ing they are on 
the highroad to 
success in the 
culture of the 
window-garden. 
The amount of 
water that is 
quite sufficient to 
answer the de¬ 
mands of a small 
plant is only a 
fraction of what 
a larger plant requires, 
If the owner of a window-box were to experiment 
a little, she would soon convince herself of the folly 
of applying water in small quantities. Let the soil 
in such a box get dry—really dry all through—apply 
a quart of water to it, then examine the effect. You 
will find that perhaps an inch of the upper soil has 
been penetrated by moisture, but below that the soil 
remains in the condition that prevailed before any 
water was applied. Then use a pailful of water, 
instead of a quart, and note the change that takes 
place. You will find that all the soil in the box is 
saturated. Very 
likely some water 
will escape at the 
ends and bottom 
if the box is not 
a snug-jointed 
one. This shows 
that the soil has 
taken up all the 
moisture it can 
retain, and that 
the surplus has 
been allowed 
to drain away. 
From this experi¬ 
ment you gain a 
good idea of the 
amount of water 
needed to keep 
the soil moist, 
in a window-box 
of average size, 
and from it it is 
easy to formulate 
this rule. Apply 
at least a pailful 
of water to each 
box every day. 
If the season is 
a very hot, dry 
one, a second 
watering may be 
necessary, espe¬ 
cially after your 
plants have grown 
to good size, for 
then they will 
have strong roots 
and a good many 
of them, and 
these will extract 
moisture very 
rapidly from the 
soil. Evaporation 
will he doin<r the 
o 
same thing, hence 
two sources of moisture-depletion must be guarded 
against instead of one. From what 1 have said, it will 
be easy to understand that I consider the window- 
box problem solved by the liberal use of water. I 
have advised a great many readers, who have written 
to me of failure, to try again, and use water as sug¬ 
gested above, and many of them have done so and 
have written, later on, to tell me of entire success. 
A VERANDA-POSTBOX 
139 
