How To Install a Window Flowerbox

Wow flowerboxes are miniaturized versions of traditional flowerbeds and gardens. Filled with gay colors and cascading blossoms, window boxes can provide a refreshing relief from the wintertime blahs and enhance an otherwise plain and unattractive window. Window boxes come in an almost endless array of designs. Made from wood, plastic, metal, or composites, window boxes are the perfect medium to express yourself creatively. You can plant them with almost any variety of plant or herb. In fact, window boxes serve as the ultimate in herb gardens, placing your favorite cooking herbs within easy reach. At one time, window boxes had to be installed at the time the home was built because of the difficulty using existing fasteners in brick, stone, or other siding products besides wood. Today, all that has changed. You can install window boxes in just about any configuration your imagination can supply.

Installing your favorite window box   

Window flower boxes can give your home a burst of blazing color

 

1. Choose a window that faces in a direction that will provide the optimum in sunlight and fresh air for your plants.
2. Determine how the window functions. For sliders and double hung windows, you can mount your window box closer to the bottom sash. If your window swings out, you will want to hold your window box lower down so that the bottom of the window does not brush against the plants you plan to display.
3. If your window box comes with wall mount brackets, simply space them evenly on each side of the window at the proper height. 
4. Anchor the brackets with the proper fasteners for the type of siding on your house. Plumb the brackets with a level.
5. If the siding is brick or stone, use masonry fasteners like quick bolts or expanding concrete anchors.
6. For standard wood framed homes, try to locate the studs in your outside wall. There should be one along each side of your window. If possible, use screws or fasteners long enough to penetrate the studs inside the wall.
7. If you made your own window flower boxes, you can design your own brackets or even attach the window box to the side of your house by driving fasteners at an angle down through the side of the box and into the wall.

Tips

If your home has aluminum or vinyl siding, plan to make the brackets stand off the wall a small distance so they do not bend or deform the siding. You can do this by installing small blocks of wood between the back of the bracket where the fastener is located and the siding on the wall.

Ideally, the brackets should hold the window boxes away from the wall a little so water does not stain or damage the wall or the siding.