30 
House & Garden 
Hewitt 
Stucco and brick walls call 
for boxes of substantial , 
squarish lines 
also do well, and the grevil- 
leas and narrow-leaved dra- 
cenas are excellent. 
The foregoing lists are 
compiled primarily for sum¬ 
mer effects, but there is no 
reason why the winter sea¬ 
son should mean a discon¬ 
tinuance of all growth. The 
substitution of small coni¬ 
fers, low-growing junipers, 
young spruce and arborvitae, 
with a few dwarf barberries 
to lighten with their bright 
berries the somber evergreen foliage, will 
maintain the decorative value of the boxes 
in fall and winter. At this season, too, hardy 
English ivy and the drooping Evonymus 
radicans will relieve the somewhat stiff 
formality of the upright conifers. 
Planting and Care 
The usual planting practice is to set the 
plants directly in the boxes, precisely as you 
would do in a regular flower bed. After 
they have filled the boxes with roots you will 
have to add more plant food, either a layer 
of well rotted manure or a light coating of 
bone meal. If you can arrange it, a weekly 
watering with diluted liquid manure would 
be better than either of these, as it carries 
the nourishment to the feeding rootlets more 
quickly and in more available form. 
A second plan, which has many advan¬ 
tages, is not to remove the plants at all from 
the pots in which they were grown, but 
simply set the pots in the boxes and fill in 
around and beneath them with soil. In this 
way individual plants can be readily shifted 
or removed entirely, changes made from 
winter to spring or summer plantings, or 
different combinations tried to give a variety 
An August arrangement whose 
effect is achieved largely by 
unity of house and box designs 
A type of xvindow box where 
the soil is watered through a 
pipe at one end 
of which the ordinarily planted 
box is to a large extent incapable. 
It is perhaps superfluous, but I 
cannot refrain from a word of 
warning about summer watering. 
Especially when exposed to full 
sun, the soil in window boxes will 
dry out in a surprisingly short 
time, and you know what a con¬ 
tinuance of such a condition is 
bound to mean. See to it, then, 
that the plants never suffer from 
a lack of soil moisture. Do your 
watering in the evening preferably, 
do it thoroughly, and do it often 
enough to keep everything in 
thriving condition. 
The principal insect pest for 
which you will have to keep watch 
is the common aphis or plant louse, 
a little green or black, soft-bodied 
beast, not over 1/16" long, that 
may congregate on the under sides 
of the leaves. Take a look for them 
every little while, and if any are 
found spray them with nicotine 
or kerosene emulsion. Both of 
these mixtures can be purchased ready- 
mixed at any of the large garden supply 
houses, or made up at home. 
The value of a well designed and cared 
for window box is twofold: from the out¬ 
side looking in, and from the inside looking 
out. Seen from the street, or from the 
walk or drive as one approaches the house, 
they add immeasurably to the attractiveness 
of the impression. For the inmates of the 
home, too, especially when a city location or 
other reason precludes the privilege of a 
real in-the-ground garden, its value is ob¬ 
vious. At a minimum expenditure of time 
and labor it offers an opportunity for a dis¬ 
play of growing things, not only in the sum¬ 
mer but during the winter months as well. 
In the City 
For the city dweller, consigned to asphalt 
streets and tall buildings all summer, the 
window box is an especial boon. It gives 
him a touch of green, growing things that 
he can watch and care for during the hot 
summer days of his exile. And whether it 
is but one box hung from a hall bedroom 
window or a garden on the roof, he will 
find peculiar refreshment in 
their companionship. Be¬ 
cause with a garden of such 
small proportions he comes 
to know his flowers inti¬ 
mately — an experience not 
possible for a busy person in 
a big garden, and one that is 
a constant revelation to the 
mind. It must mean an in¬ 
crease of knowledge and 
gladdening of the spirit, 
though the inspiration be 
held within the narrow con¬ 
fines of a single box. 
The Colonial entrance of¬ 
fers unique opportunity for 
simple planting 
