I Have Empty Windowboxes

[gnomi]

...and I want to know what to put in them.

Here's the deal: mabfan and I moved here in December (late December, at that), when everything was covered in snow. The snow has (finally) all gone away, and now that it's getting nice out, I've discovered that I'd like to do something with the window boxes that are outside the living room window. The soil in them looks good, though the plants that had been there are really most sincerely dead.

It's a northern exposure (though without the moose wandering through the opening credits), and we're in Massachusetts, which means that our weather is unpredictable.

Anyone have any ideas of what I can plant that will grow well under these conditions?

Comments

[madknits.livejournal.com]

Impatiens.
Or however you spell it. They're hardy, they're pretty, and they need a minimum of fuss.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I love impatiens. Thanks for the suggestion!

[xochitl42.livejournal.com]

Sage will sprout like mad, and is delicious. Shooting stars also put up with a lot of weather nonsense and are very pretty.

[gingicat]

Well, it's certainly low sun, so not tomatoes or basil (my personal preference). You will also want really good drainage - large gravel in the bottom, plus a drip tray, should do it.

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

One tool, if money becomes something you can put into a garden, is an easybloom monitor. It actually has a feature where you could set it up in recommend mode and place it where you want, and it'll measure the conditions and tell you what kind of plants from their database would work in that area.

It also has a monitor mode if a plant begins to get sick, you can use that to tell what needs to be changed.

It's only about $60 at Sears. Just got mine this week to find out why my sage wasn't sprouting yet.

Sincerely,
Your Geeky-Goth Techno-Gardener

[sdelmonte]

Tweedlebugs.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking hydrangeas are not going to be a good suggestion. :)

Northern exposure is going to make it tricky. And even if the plants are dead, it's a good idea to replace the potting soil, since the stuff that's in there is probably shagged out and not getting much extra nutrients from, you know, mulch and stuff. OKAY, MY MOM TOLD ME TO ALWAYS START FRESH, FINE, that other stuff was me just trying to make sense of it.

I have ferns that grow quite nicely on the north side of my house. I'd go for shade-loving plants or shade only, and there are still some sweet little flowers that would do well. this is a good article with some suggestions.

One of the plants they mention, coleus, comes in a wide variety of cheerful colors and I love pairing it with flowers for really interesting flower arrangements, particularly with white flowers, or the aforementioned hydrangeas. It can get a little leggy if put in the sun, so a north-facing box would probably be good for this. I particularly like the variety that's the lighter green and white with the hot pink in the middle; it's so cheerful.

There are also some lovely varigated vines that are a bit more funky than classic ivy or philodendrons. Sweet potato vine in particular is pretty sweet.

Have fun!

(oh, I did a google search for shade window boxes and came up with that link)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Can we get one of those mooses to wander by?

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. WINDOWBOXES. Bedroom window. Never thought of this before. MUST ADD TO SHOPPING LIST. ktnxbye!

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

A moose once bit my sister.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

My mom has gotten pansies and marigolds to grow in windowboxes with many different exposures. My favorite grow-anywheres are lemon balm and spearmint, but a. they don't have flowers and b. I've never tried them in a windowbox--just yards.

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

Oregano, mint, and chives grow pretty much everywhere. I think they're pretty, but that might be a 'finding beauty in utility' thing. They grow here :-) Sage is also good, rosemary is picky. Hens and chicks might be good, and if you don't mind replanting every year or so geraniums are always lovely. Particularly hardy geramiums.

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

only suggestion i have would be to not plant things directly into the windowboxes, but instead to have them in smaller pots inside the windowboxes. better drainage, easier to swap a single planting in or out should one either die or outgrow the space, plus this widens the range of what you can successfully grow there because you can take the pots inside once the weather gets truly freezing.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I like sage, and I want to do a combination of pretty and useful.

I know nothing about shooting stars. I will have to do some research.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions!

[gem225.livejournal.com]

I was going to tell you all that had worked on our back porch, but I asked Greg what exposure we had there, and he said that it was a southern one, so those wouldn't work. *g* You've gotten some fine suggestions from smart people anyway. :-D Good luck with your window boxes!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

We don't have gardening space right now except the window boxes, so for now I'm starting slow, but thanks for the suggestion. If I find we have more space, I will definitely look into it.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Are they plantable? :-)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you for all the suggestions!

I was wondering whether or not I should change the soil, and it sounds like I probably should.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

WanderMoose!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Happy to provide a new line of thinking! :-)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I love pansies (in fact, there are pansies on our chuppah that my mother designed and painted). Thanks for the recommendations!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I want to do some pretty and some useful, so these are great suggestions. Though I know mint has a habit of taking over places; my mom has tons of it.

And I thought hens and chickens (which my mom also has) like rockier soil, but that can probably be accomplished in a window box just as easily as in the soil-over-sand-pit on which I grew up.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about that. The previous owner clearly had them directly in soil in the boxes, but she also clearly left the plants in to die over the winter (which they did). I will definitely have to ponder this, as you are correct about the weather growing more and more freezing.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I may come back and ask about southern exposure, because there are likely planter boxes on our back porch, as well (which is southern exposure).

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome, lovie.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Can we get it to be a chocolate mousse?

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

Mint might have a harder time escaping from a window box - it primarily spreads through the root system.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Mint is always better by itself in a container, in my experience. And cbpotts is right; rosemary is VERY tricky. I've killed every bush I've had and asked a former nursery owner friend how to keep one alive and she said, "dammed if I know." :)

[gem225.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. :-)

It'll be my pleasure to tell you about good southern exposure plants whenever you'd like to hear about them, and I'll check with Greg about that too, since he'll remember things I don't. That's a wonderful thing about having a partner, I find. :-D

[aunt-becca.livejournal.com]

pansies are very pretty and look great in window boxes.

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

Oh, we just have the mini patios where I'm putting window-sized boxes, myself. This thing is made for indoor or outdoor plants.

I'm tempted to swap it out to figure out why one starter box of my tomatoes died in the last 24 hours. Although, somehow, I suspect feline involvement there.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Pansies are among my favorite flowers. My mom put some on our chuppah, even.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Good to know! I will look further into them if they're worthwhile for small planting areas.

And, yes, I'd suspect perhaps feline involvement as well. It is for this reason that my mom used to put her peat pots in places the cats wouldn't interfere.

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

G suggests morning glories (and their evening equivalent), although they may try to escape the window box since they like to climb...

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

i planted morning glories in window boxes at my dorm, and then ran twine up to the windows in the room above so they could climb. that may not be feasible here, but it was fun. and they are annuals, so you don't have to worry about feeling guilty when they die in the fall.

there are related, smaller flowers called convolvulus, which i've gotten seeds of. i dunno if they like shade, though.

i think pansies are a win, and their smaller cousins, the violas. they don't get as leggy in the summer. however, they will reseed if you let them, which may or may not be optimal where you are.

also, i got some chive and cilantro seeds from a friend. they are yours if you want them.

[xochitl42.livejournal.com]

Here you go.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Impatiens. Pretty, very low-maintenance, and don't need much sun. Just space them apart a little bit, as they will fluff out.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I don't have anywhere to allow them to climb, alas. If I can make them work on my back porch, though, I just might do so.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Pansies are definitely on my list. The shade is a big factor in what will be happy in the boxes. And I'll ponder the chives, but I'm not a big enough cilantro fan to want to grow my own. Thanks for the offer!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I like impatiens a lot (as I mentioned above). They and pansies are high on my list.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Sorry, hadn't read through all the comments.