Window Boxes and Bluebonnets

When we lost the Bradford, I just knew one of the things to go would be my window boxes. They are full of shade loving plants..and they just couldn't survive in the hot west sun, or so I thought. But, look how good they look!
They didn't just survive, they flourished! I have had these window boxes for years. Hubby made them for me. I just stick bits and pieces of this and that in them. There is airplane plants, swedish ivy, wandering jews, some tiny english ivy, and of course my favorite...
...coleus!!! I snip cuttings from all my coleus plants and just stick them in the dirt. So easy!
I am so pleased with the results, and with all that sun too!
Even the purple heart growing below looks good (although I think it enjoys all this added sun).



And the Bluebonnets ??
I scattered seeds 2 weeks ago all around the bed the new tree is in--and here they are! We have had so much rain lately, I just hope they don't drown, but wildflowers like rain early in their life. Hopefully I will have a bed full of these blue beauties in April!

Window Boxes--mid summer

The window boxes outside my breakfast room window are just beautiful! In this heat there is not lots of lushness in my garden, but I can always count on the plants here to look good. I don't have anything that blooms here--just greenery. Over the years the boxes have changed looks many times. I have tried so many different plants, but discovered that what works best is a mixture of many things.



There are 2 boxes resting on brackets. My husband made the boxes for me trying to match the cedar on the house--which it does!










Remember the
"airplane" plants from the 70's? That's what I started with. But I must confess--I thought I was buying Liriope grass! I just grabbed them up quickly at Home Depot one day. Pleasant surprise as they have worked so well!



What makes the window boxes the most fun, is that I go around my yard and pinch off this and that, then just stick it right in the dirt. I have to make sure I water enough, but they are easy to water. There is very little sun because of the tree, so I only use shade plants.


Coleus is one of the best plants to "stick" in the boxes. I have so many different kinds of coleus--their color really adds to all the green.



I also pinch off my wandering jew and nestle it somewhere.
Last year I pinched off some ivy (I think it might be swedish ivy, but I am not sure.) I thought it was dead back in the spring, but it was not and it has grown and grown!







These little window boxes give me so much pleasure and fun. I think they are without a doubt one of my favorite things. They are very simple, didn't really cost anything, but they hold a very special place in my heart!

"It's the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature." Laura Ingalls Wilder

Outside and Inside

I love to be outside. I start my mornings outdoors with a cup of coffee and I end my nights out in the swing. One of the things I enjoy looking at from the flagstone patio are my window boxes below my breakfast room window. They are in the shade so nothing has blooms, but pretty greens--lots of texture. I am always adding little cuttings of this and that as the seasons come and go.





But it is so hot now I spend more time inside looking out. I can't have window boxes inside, but I do like to
"decorate" the window. Plants, a birdhouse, garden signs, garden pictures and small vases of cosmos frame the view of my little backyard. I can see the bird feeder hanging from the tree, the hummingbird feeders, the birdbath (that is making lots of birds very happy) and all the flea market finds on the flagstone patio. I'm still outside as much as possible, but when it's just too hot, this garden view of my little backyard takes me out on these lazy, hazy, crazy, HOT days of summer!