66 
House & Garden 
V' 
GARDENS 
i n 
WINDOWS 
MINGA POPE DDRYEA 
Box or “rusker” can be 
clipped to a nice regular¬ 
ity of outline when for¬ 
mality is a thing to be de¬ 
sired in the window box 
In a semicircular “bal¬ 
cony” there is space for 
small conifers to form a 
green screen, and some 
drooping evergreen vines 
P ICCOLA, who grew a flower in the 
crevice of his prison yard walks, will 
always be the patron saint of those 
who persist in having flowers in restricted 
places. In fact, he should be the ideal of 
those who make gardens in city backyards, 
and his experience the encouragement for 
those who would make things flourish in 
the smallest kind of garden, the window 
box. 
Quite apart from the decorative quality 
that window boxes give, the growing of 
them is a form of amusement that has a 
distinct psychology all its own. For it is 
one thing—and a relatively easy one—to 
make several acres blossom like the rose, 
but to keep a narrow box in flower is a 
test of the true gardener. 
The love of growing things is a per¬ 
sistent and penetrating force with which 
even the poorest in this world's goods 
are not untouched. Pass down a tene¬ 
ment street of a summer morning and see 
the valiant attempts at garden¬ 
ing: a morning glory growing 
from a tomato can spreads its ^ 
greenery and flowers up a win¬ 
dow; geraniums give their 
burning reds to a desolate 
window ledge; wandering Jew 
sprawls down a stretch of ugly 
wall; nasturtiums swing in the 
fetid zephyrs rising from the 
city street. Between these vali¬ 
ant attempts and the prim and 
well-kept window boxes of a 
smart residence there is no great 
gulf fixed. A love of flowers is 
a measure of democracy. A win¬ 
dow box is a symbol of a home. 
The use of window boxes is 
almost universal. You find it 
in practically every country, 
although some have made great¬ 
er advancement in the art than 
others. Thus in England and 
France the window box plays 
an important role in the average 
home, England especially. 
The Englishman feels that the outside 
of his home is quite as important as the 
inside, and no matter how humble the 
dwelling he always makes an effort to give 
the outside floral beauty. The average 
house in town always looks well groomed, 
with its steps whitened with sand stone and 
its window boxes tilled with bright flowers 
in the spring and summer and evergreens 
in the winter. 
Before the war there were compara¬ 
tively few houses of the better class in 
London that did not decorate the outside 
in some way with flowers and make them 
lovely with color. The window boxes 
themselves in which these flowers are 
planted, are usually of bright colored tiles 
mounted in a wooden frame, easily manu¬ 
factured by any clever carpenter. The tiles 
come in red, bright green, blue and black, 
and are held in place by a wooden rim. 
Certainly the bright green tiled window 
box in England is much more effective 
Ornamental grilles of wrought iron may be planted with 
English ivy and joined with a festoon of the same 
vine to aid in the decoration 
than our plain green painted wooden one 
in America. 
In planting the window box the best way 
to succeed is to follow the simple archi¬ 
tectural lines of the formation of the win¬ 
dow itself as a guide to the planting. 
Before making a selection of the flowers 
to use in window boxes it may be well 
to settle on the construction of these boxes. 
For a porch, balcony or window they should 
not be deeper than nine inches, and from 
nine to twelve inches wide. If on a window 
sill the box projects beyond the sill it can be 
held in place by a bracket, or simpler 
still,—and this should be done to all 
window boxes—they can be wired in place. 
Screw-eyes on the rear corner of the boxes 
and on the window frame, and stout pic¬ 
ture wire, will do the trick. Although 
boxes can be of any length it is wise not to 
have them over three feet so that they can 
be easily handled. Self-watering boxes 
are on the market, the water being poured 
in one end and drawn up from 
the bottom. 
Hanging baskets can be of 
wire or wood covered with bark 
or painted to match the color 
scheme of the house. In such 
baskets should be planted, in 
addition to the flowers, some 
kind of trailing vine. 
While it is possible for the 
enthusiastic gardener to raise 
his own window box flowers in¬ 
doors, especially the annuals, it 
is really much less trouble to 
buy them. As in all gardens, 
there are the shade-loving 
plants and those that require 
sun, those for summer effects 
and those for winter. The 
position of the box and the 
season of the year will deter¬ 
mine the choice of plants. 
In sunny windows one can 
use the following: geraniums, 
both the tall and the ivy kinds; 
petunias and ageratum, both 
