Boxes

I love window boxes and I've really enjoyed improving the back garden at our new home. Fifty seven paving stones, forty bags of weeds, fifteen plants purchased on the cheap from summer's end sales and more than ten full days of work later, the garden looks presentable. I'm saving my pennies for a bbq, table and chairs, and solar lanterns to make the site an entertaining destination next summer. Friends near and far, please pencil in our event on Regatta evening 2010; we're looking forward to hosting a cook up, complete with mojitos, smokies and a viewing of the championship race at the lake. Here's to planning ahead!

This fall's edition of Canadian Gardening arrived in our mail box late last week and has tempted me with the most festive, autumnal window box. Complete with tiger striped miniature pumpkins, small flowering cabbages (which I've also used in planters in our backyard), tasmin tiger spurge, sprayed black branches and black scallop bugleweed, these window dressings look spooky and are a perfect 'welcome mat' for fall breezes. These window boxes expand my thinking on fall planting beyond mustard and pink mums, orange cotoneaster berries and red burning bushes.

As our street is framed with towering maples and chestnuts, the falling red, yellow and orange leaves would be nicely accessorized with this window box. For more fall container planting inspiration, see here.