Window Boxes 
Hy HELEN LUKENS GAUT 
Photographs by the Author 
F illed with gay blossoms and trailing vines, 
window boxes enliven the melancholy of 
ugly buildings, as intelligence makes bright 
and beautiful a homely face. If one has no ground 
space for a garden, which is often the case in large 
cities where flats and skyscrapers elbow and jostle, 
crowd and frown, he need not sit down and weep, 
for he can fasten a few gardens to the side 
of his house, and though he can not sit in them, 
he can sit by them and let them hold his nerves and 
unrest. 
The humblest tumbledown shack can be made 
attractive with a single window box. This was 
especially exemplified during the early days in Los 
Angeles, when Mexicans often combined the prac¬ 
tical and artistic by planting pumpkin seeds on 
their window ledges, and it was not infrequent to 
see an old adobe charmingly draped with great 
leaved vines, from 
which, like copper bells 
in green belfries, hung 
huge golden pumpkins. 
Garden peas, grape 
vines and tomatoeswere 
also popular for house 
decoration, and some¬ 
times, by these same 
provident people, grain 
was planted on the sod 
roofs. Until h a y- 
makers began harvest¬ 
ing on the housetops, 
these mid-air fields were 
refreshing hits of nature 
to the tired slums. 
Among odd, as well 
as practical window 
boxes, may be classed 
the kitchen window box 
which is adaptable for 
cramped tenements, es¬ 
pecially for the apart¬ 
ments of a working 
bachelor girl, who may 
not be financially able 
to rent more than one 
room. It is neither 
artistic nor beautiful, 
appears more like a 
wart or a mole on a 
smooth face, but it is a 
useful and comfortable contrivance. It holds all 
steam, odors and grease of cooking within itself, 
thus permitting the living-room to remain clean and 
sweet, and able to look one pleasantly in the eye. In 
construction it is simple and inexpensive. Eirst, 
have a shelf, supported by strong brackets built out¬ 
side your window, the length corresponding with that 
of the sill, with which it should he level. The box 
should be made of galvanized iron and should be 
wide enough to hold a gas plate and small oven— 
about eighteen inches wide—while the other propor¬ 
tions should correspond with those of the lower 
window sash, against which it should fit snugly. On 
either side near the bottom, place wire covered 
ventilators with iron caps, that can be kept open or 
closed. 
In the top have a chimney or air shaft through 
which steam can escape. The window between 
stove and living-room 
may he kept closed 
except when it is neces¬ 
sary to attend to cook¬ 
ing food, and in this 
w a y a 11 disagreeable 
kitchen elements are 
condemned to perch on 
the outer ledge, seen 
and seeing, yet un¬ 
smelled. The box 
proper need not be 
nailed to the building, 
and is easily transfer¬ 
able from one location 
to anotber. 
Of all the many win¬ 
dow boxes in vogue, 
none excel in beauty 
and joy-giving qualities, 
that of the fountain win¬ 
dow box, with its frolick¬ 
ing spray, grottoes, deli¬ 
cate water plants and 
gold fish. It is a thing 
O ^ O 
alive, a thing that talks, 
that sings, that plays 
unending rest notes on 
tired heart-strings. The 
basin, of size to con¬ 
form with that of the 
window against which 
it is to be placed, may be 
AN URN FILLED WITH GERANIUMS AND FERNS 
205 
