Downtown Window Boxes and the Advantages of Container Gardening

What benefits does container gardening offer over planting in the ground? About's Guide to Container Gardening discusses many in this article on the advantages of container gardening, not the least of which is that container gardening is just plain easy! "Just look around your house and you’ll be surprised how many things will work" for container gardening (e.g., old buckets), says Kerry Michaels.

Window boxes (see picture) constitute one category of container gardening. In some of the quaint New England town centers I visit occasionally, the businesses seem almost to compete with each other for bragging rights to the snazziest window boxes in town. I enjoy seeing the various color combinations and plant mixtures they come up with.

Downtown window boxes speak to another advantage of container gardening, namely, that it permits gardening in small spaces. And even a "garden" as small as a window box planting succeeds in softening the hard edges and straight lines of a town block. It's a smart move on the part of the businesses who display these window boxes, as they create a homey, cheerful mood that draws people into town by promising a pleasant shopping experience.

Related resource: Landscaping in Small Spaces

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