Window box planters for maximum curb appeal at minimum expense
Back in my twenties, I rented a small quaint house in San Francisco, just a short distance to the beach. The house was plain and simple with a small front yard. There was only a beautiful rose colored daisy like perennial and a wealth of cineraria growing there. There was a porch, two windows facing the street and two rundown window box planters. There was nothing inside them, not even some dirt, which surprised me. I found the house charismatic. Having never enjoyed the pleasure of a garden, as I had just moved for a third story Victorian apartment, I was very pleased with the possibilities of the diamond in the rough. All it really needed is time, effort and lots of love in order to come alive.
I decided that my first improvement would be filling those window box planters. My budget was as modest as the house, so I wanted maximum bang for my buck. The window boxes were a natural starting point. A little potting soil and some flowers and I’d be in business.
Because it was early winter when I moved in, my thoughts immediately went to daffodils and tulips, which could be easily planted for lots of spring color in just a few months. I could easily visualize this burst of color surrounding the front door. Once my bulbs were in, I could set my mind to planning for the summer occupants of my window box planters. The microclimate of San Francisco’s beach area was fairly restrictive. Fog, fog and more fog. This foggy climate was made even more monochromatic by the gray wooden walls of the house, gray composition roof and yes, you guessed it, gray window box planters. Someone had no imagination.
Magenta paint was my choice, and I painted the front door and trim and your guessed it, even the window boxes. It did look much better, even if I say so myself. The cineraria stood out very stunningly, as the exterior of the house livened up drastically.
I was thrilled beyond measure as the daffodils and tulips began surfacing and coming into bloom, yes, I even talked to them. I had already been planning for the summer and fall, the flowers I would plant in my amazing colored window box planter. When the time came, I delicately began to interplant begonias, magenta and purple fuchsias in between each of the bulbs and then chose some dark turquoise trailing lobelias for good measure. These new flowers were well underway, by the time summer took the bulbs. All these flowers thrived in such a moist and darkened environment. For even more color I chose a variegated coleus. My visitors found this as charming as I did, while they complimented its beautiful display of colors.
Red, pink and white cyclamens replaced the summer residents as fall turned into winter. Eventually, the begonias came in to wait out the winter in pots. In the meantime, ferns and spider plants began growing along the underside of the porch’s roof, hanging about like ballroom belles. You would be surprised what a couple of four foot window box planters can do for your home.
