Winter Flower Boxes: Tips On Creating Winter Window Boxes

Outdoor Window Box Planter
windowbox
(Image credit: alohadave)

If you live in an apartment with no yard to speak of, the prospect of gardening might seem unattainable. You can have flowers and fresh vegetables all summer long, however, with urban window box gardens. As long as your window receives light, you can tend your own mini garden in the privacy of your own apartment. What do you do with it when winter comes though? How do you keep it from looking drab? Keep reading to learn more about window flower boxes in winter.

Creating Winter Window Boxes

The first thing to remember when creating winter window boxes is that some plants will keep producing and even perform better after a frost. Swiss chard, kale, parsley, and mint will all thrive through a frosty autumn. You can plant them in late summer when hotter weather plants start dying. Alternatively, if you plant everything in grow bags, you can start them indoors earlier and switch them out to your urban window box gardens when the temperatures start to drop.

Window Flower Boxes in Winter

If you want plants that will truly last the winter, try growing winter-blooming plants. There are actually many to choose from like hellebore, winter jasmine, and daphne to name a few. Likewise, you can plant miniature evergreens in grow bags, switching them outside when everything else has died. If you don’t want to plant anything, of course, or if you don’t have grow bags, you can always decorate your winter flower boxes to look like they’re full of life and be very festive about it. Cut some evergreen shoots and holly boughs with berries on them. Tuck the ends into the soil-- this should help to keep them looking fresh for a month or two. If they start to fade, simply switch them out for new branches. The snowfall won't hurt them, and they might even look better for it.

Liz Baessler
Senior Editor

The only child of a horticulturist and an English teacher, Liz Baessler was destined to become a gardening editor. She has been with Gardening Know how since 2015, and a Senior Editor since 2020. She holds a BA in English from Brandeis University and an MA in English from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. After years of gardening in containers and community garden plots, she finally has a backyard of her own, which she is systematically filling with vegetables and flowers.