Add More Growing Space To Your Window Boxes With A Simple Trick

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Sometimes a house has just one window that can accommodate a box-style planter, but its facade needs a bigger floral statement. If you find yourself in this situation or simply crave more space for a container garden, hanging baskets may be the answer. Attaching them to a window box can increase the available real estate for a range of container-friendly plants. The trick is suspending the baskets in a way that's both stylish and secure. Plus, you'll need to find plants that flourish in the growing conditions your baskets offer. Many hanging baskets are ideal for trailing flowers like calibrachoa and low-maintenance succulents such as burro's tail.

When planning this type of floral display, it's smart to choose lightweight plants and soil for your baskets. This helps prevent your window boxes from warping, sagging, or breaking. Pair window boxes with hanging baskets sporting similar colors or hues that match your home's trim, so your floral display feels pulled together, allowing the plants to stand out. Alternatively, pair the containers to your window box: wrought iron with wrought iron, wood or macramé with weathered wood, and so on. Filling your containers with three complementary colors of plants (including green) makes the finished product look polished, too.

If you're upgrading an existing window box, design the rest of your hanging floral display around it. As you do so, consider what would make your home's exterior pop. If brightly colored flowers are a good solution, choose hanging baskets in shades that help the blossoms stand out. For a more lavish appearance, find baskets that look stellar with vining plants spilling over their sides.

Some styles of window box are better suited than others for supporting the extra weight of hanging plants that swings around on windy days. After all, you don't want a boxful of petunias to come crashing down, potentially hurting someone below. In general, hanging a plant basket on a window box is a bit like attaching it to a fence. You need to consider the material, structural integrity, and weight-bearing capacity of the supporting object, plus factors such as squirrel access. To keep squirrels away from hanging plants and window boxes, try sprinkling cinnamon on the soil. 

Sturdy metal window boxes with horizontal bars or crisscrossing pieces — the HFHome 24-inch black metal window box, for example — are often just right for hanging a couple of plant baskets. Likewise, the metal holders for plastic window boxes often have bottom bars that can handle a few baskets. If a basket's hook doesn't fit over a bar, secure the container with a strong rock-climbing knot such as a figure 8 follow through. Or check the weight capacity of your plastic window box's brackets. They may be able to manage more weight than the window box provides. If so, see if you can slip hanging baskets onto them.

On their own, plastic window boxes aren't ideal for hanging baskets. A wooden window box such as the Giantex window-mounted wood plant box may work if metal hooks are added. This product can support a maximum of 22 pounds, so it can only hold a lightweight basket if the contents of the box aren't too heavy.