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With spring right around the corner I thought you might enjoy a simple project that is easy to do and helps spruce up your home.  Window boxes make for an attractive flower display and also bring other benefits......if you plant the right flowers.

A window box can be constructed from 5 pieces of wood.  Just measure the width of the window you wish to place it under and write that number down.  Cut your front and back of your box to that width (usually I make my boxes 8 inches tall and readily available lumber is available in that dimension.)   I recommend 3/4 inch thick lumber to support the weight.

I make my boxes 6 inches deep so that they don't stick to far off of the house and blend in with the siding.  Cut your bottom to the dimensions of your window width and remember do drill seep holes for the water to drain out of. This next part sounds like math but it easy.  The sides will be cut to your 6 inch width and the height measurement will be 8 inches minus the thickness of the bottom (or in this case 3/4 of an inch).  That way all the top edges match up flush.   Screw or nail the pieces together and you’re done with the construction. 

I like to add a little ready-made trim work at the top to make it fancier and I added a little scroll work to the front for some definition.  The trim work needs to be mitered at a 45 degree angle so that the edges are neat and tidy.   Those too are nailed into place. 

A couple coats of exterior paint and you are finished.  Most home centers sell pre-made supports but I like to attach them directly to the wooden house trim so they appear to "float" in place.

Now for the fun part, the planting.  USE GERANIUMS.  Other flowers are pretty but there is a reason why geraniums are used.   If you ever get to travel to Europe you will see lovely window boxes lining the streets and they are almost always filled with geraniums   The natural oils in the geranium are mother nature's own mosquito repellant.  They also repel, flies bees and wasps.  Window screens are seldom used in Europe and with geraniums you don't need them.  You might still get a stray bug in the house but it certainly cuts down on the number.

Window screens are actually a rather modern invention and did not come into common use 'till after the Civil War.  In earlier America people would hang Cheesecloth over their windows to keep bugs out and still let the air circulate on hot summer nights.  Cheesecloth was not very elegant and even less durable but it worked.  Fine mesh wire was manufactured in the mid 1800's to make flour sieves and screens for cheese manufacture.  The Gilbert and Bennett sieve making company in Connecticut quickly accumulated a surplus of fine wire mesh because they could no longer sell it in Southern states.  A smart employee painted some of it so it would not rust, mounted it in a wooden frame and began selling it as "window screens". The rest is history.

So turn back the clock a little, enhance your summer look for your home and enjoy fresh flowers (without bugs) at your windows.

Enjoy!

Dan Hughes

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