How To Add Instant Curb Appeal To Your House By Adding A Window Box

As you all probably know, my husband and I are obsessed with Charleston, South Carolina. We go there every year for vacation and we are always enamored by the beautiful window boxes on the old, historic homes.

I’ve always thought a window box would look great on our home too, but I just never got around to it. However, this year, thanks to Flower Window Boxes, I am happy to say we finally have a beautiful flower box in front of our main window!

So in this post, I am going to show you just how to install the window box and how many plants per window box you should plan for. I will be giving you all the tips and tricks to window box planting so if you’re looking for some great window box ideas, be sure to check mine out below!

It’s the best way to do container planting for a small space too! A completed flower box really packs a punch to your outdoor space and with the right plants, they really make a statement!

This post is sponsored by Flower Window Boxes and contains affiliate links, but all thoughts and opinions are my own. Click here to read my disclosure policy.

Why Get A Window Box?

I think a window box planter is a great way to display a beautiful collections of plants and flowers, even if you don’t have much space outside. Since it attaches directly to your window ledge, you don’t have to worry about it taking up space on your porch or patio area.

It also becomes a focal point to your house and adds instant curb appeal when you have beautiful plants and flowers planted inside. And Flower Window Boxes makes it easy because they ship everything you need directly to your house! And they are even self-watering too which means they are very low maintenance so you can’t beat that!

Where Should I Put A Window Box?

You definitely want to pay attention to which areas of your house get the most sun. And where the best spot would be to place a window box at. We decided that below our living room window would be best since it is one of the first windows you see when driving by.

Thus, adding to the instant curb appeal factor. But whatever window you decide on, whether it be a kitchen window, or living room window like ours, be sure to take the correct measurements for it. That way, you know what size of window box to get. The flower box we got is 72″ and 8″H by 8.75″W.

And, our window box is in partial shade and part sun. So we didn’t want to get plants that required full sun for it. I will talk exactly about which plants and flowers we got for it a little later on in this post!

Materials Needed For Flower Box Installation

72″ Charleston Black PVC Window Box

Drill

Ratchet Wrench

Caulk

Drainage Rocks

Good Quality Potting Soil

Plants and Flowers

How To Install A Window Box

The very first thing we did before installing the window box was to mark off where we should drill first. We marked a spot on the back of the window box as well as the side of the house. Once we had it marked, we then drilled holes into the spots. You want to make sure you drill into the studs of the house for extra support.

Before attaching the window box to the house, we filled in the holes with some caulk. That way, it prevents any future water damage coming inside the house.

After that, we were ready to install the window box! As I mentioned above, Flower Window Boxes made this process very simple. They included everything you needed to install them, such as all the screws, bolts, and washers. All you need is a ratchet wrench to install it!

I just helped hold the box against the bottom of our window frame while my husband attached it with the ratchet wrench.

Installing The Brackets

The window box we ordered came with 3 free brackets too which was amazing! And to install the brackets, all you needed was to drill a screw into the bottom of the box and into the top of the bracket below. So simple and easy!

Self Watering Flower Box

Flower Window Boxes also offers the option of adding the self watering component to their window boxes when you order them. Which I think is a really good choice to include in your order! It keeps your flowers watered for up to a week!

So if you go on vacation or out of town for awhile, you don’t have to worry about the flowers dying on you! The boxes have a PVC pipe with wicks in them that you place underneath your potting soil. The wicks then allows the water to absorb in the potting soil when you water the plants!

Before adding the soil though, you want to make sure that the wicks are pushed down into the PVC pipe to where they only come out about an inch on the top.

Getting The Flower Box Ready To Plant

After adjusting the wicks, we added some drainage rocks to the bottom of the box. This step isn’t necessary as the box already has drainage holes in them, but, it does save cost on potting soil having a layer of rocks below!

After the rocks, we filled the window box up with potting soil. You want to use a good quality potting soil for this project. That way, you flowers and plants thrive and grow!

How Many Plants Should Be In A Planter Box?

Now for the part you’ve been waiting for! All the info on how many plants per window box there should be! Now obviously that depends on your size of window box you order. But like I mentioned above, ours is 72″.

However, it does have a divider in the middle. So technically each side is 3 feet long. When I went plant shopping, I totally forgot about the divider. I originally bought a total of 15 plants, having 1 tall plant being in the very middle of the planter box.

But, since it had the divider, I couldn’t put the tall plant right in the middle like I envisioned. So really it was a total of 14 plants after that.

What Plants Should I Put In A Window Box?

I discussed this a little earlier, but as I mentioned above our window box is in partial shade/part sun. So I tried to get as many partial shade plants as I could. We went to our local nursery to pick these plants and flowers up.

When you are deciding what the best plants are to get for your window box, really be conscious of the hours of sunlight in your area. For example, I love sweet potato vine, since it is a beautiful trailing plant. But it requires full sun, so it wouldn’t really work for our window box location.

These are all the plants and flowers we purchased for our window box below:

2 Carex Evercolor “Everillo”

4 Lysimachia Goldii (Otherwise Known As ‘Creeping Jenny’)

2 Megacopa Pink Shine Bacopa

2 Nemesia Burgandy

2 Megacopa White Bacopa

2 Japanese Painted Ferns

How Many Plants Can You Put In A 3 Foot Window Box?

So since I had a total of 14 plants, each side got 7 plants in the window box. Remember, I mentioned above how each side is a total of 3 feet so I decided to do half and half. The amount of plants I got ended up working out perfectly!

How Do You Arrange Plants In A Window Box?

So before I did any planting, I lined up the plants and flowers outside on the lawn. I placed them together where I thought I would want them to go. And then, I placed the plants (while they were still in their containers) in the window box to make sure I liked the arrangement before planting them.

The key points to arranging flower boxes is that you really want to have a thriller, filler, and spiller. My thrillers are the pink and white Megacopa Bacopas and the Nemesia Burgandy, since they are the colorful flowers.

Basically any annual flowers or flowering plant would do well for this part. And my spillers are the Creeping Jenny’s. Once they start to grow, they will start to “spill” over the box, hence the name!

The filler plant I used are my Japanese Painted Ferns and the Carex Evercolor Everillos. Now, since it is early spring, they haven’t grown to their full potential yet. I can’t wait to see how much they grow from now until early summer too!

My Window Box Flower Combination

After I decided I liked the final arrangement, it was time to plant. From left to right, I decided to plant the Carex Evercolor “Everillo” first, then a creeping Jenny, Megacopa White Bacopa, Nemesia Burgandy, Megacopa Pink Shine Bacopa, another creeping Jenny, and finished with the Japanese Painted Fern at the end of the first section of the flower box. Which is technically the center of the flower box.

Then, for the other side, I reversed the pattern to make sure it was kept the same. Again going from left to right, I planted the Japanese painted fern first, a creeping Jenny, Megacopa Pink Shine Bacopa, Nemesia Burgandy, Megacopa White Bacopa, another creeping Jenny, and then finished with the Carex Evercolor “Everillo” on that side.

I love the types of plants and flowers I got and how they look in combination together. The pop of color from the flowers really stand out while the leafy greens of the ferns, balance the whole arrangement out! I am really happy with all of our plant choices!

Enjoy Your Window Planter Box

Well, that’s it my friends! I hope this post answered your questions on how many plants per window box you should plant and just how easy it is to install a window box!

As you can see, you can choose from a ton of different plants to arrange your window box with. And it really does add instant curb appeal to your house!

This was one of my very favorite DIY projects to date, and I am loving driving by our house and seeing all the colorful blooms! Having window box plants can really help improve the exterior of your house. And by using Flower Window Boxes Self Watering Feature, you don’t even have to have green thumb to do so!

Do you have a window box on your home too? If so, I would love to know the number of plants you plant in them and what they are too! Let me know below! And, If you’re looking for more container gardening ideas like this, be sure to check out my posts on my DIY Herb Garden as well as my DIY Raised Garden Beds too!