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Thanks, Ally. I've been thinking too. Well, I've had to, cos I bought two of them and some ivy-leaved pelargoniums to go in them. Everything else was either plastic or very heavy.

Have put water in and they are watertight (I bet they wouldn't be if I wanted them be!) so am going to drill a couple of holes in the bottom of each (or OH is - it'll make him feel he's made a contribution to the garden ) and try them like that.

If past experience is anything to go on, these trailing pelargoniums get enormous and will be shading the front of the container by the time the roots get near the sides. Well, that's the theory anyway.

I think I shall be reusing the plastic boxes at the back for this year, so I shall shortly be planting up riotous red in the silver metal for the front, and a glorious clash of purple petunias and orange tagetes for the back, so get your sunglasses ready and watch this space.

Red and purple! A woman after my own heart!

Thanks for the info, Mac. I'm wondering about putting some water-retaining crystals at the bottom to help with the 'no reservoir' problem. Touble is, I don't know how many to put. I have visions of the whole lot perilously rising and falling as they expand and shrink back. That'd scare the neighbours.

I did try lifting the fake stone containers I saw - nearly pulled my arm off! Oh, I'm sure they weigh less than the real thing but, unlike yours, not enough less!

And yes, Beaver, a timed watering system would be nice but, at the front where the metal ones are going, it's simply not possible. Well, not without calling in the professionals, and I'm not doing that for two window-boxes!


For what it's worth, my experience is that watering as slowly as you can bear to is the trick - a quick splash and it all rushes down the edges and out the bottom. Watering with warm water is good too, especially if the compost has really dried out.

Anyway this is going to be my test-year for these containers, so I'll let you know what I do and show you how it goes.



Edit: Just got back up here from planting them up, and it's hurling it down again (phew - just made it in time). I had watered them in, but they're getting more now, plus a howling gale and I hope I have some plants left at the end of it.

We never seem to get gentle rain here - either there's none at all or there's a deluge. Someone told me we actually get as much rain here as in Dublin, but whereas Irish rain comes in the form of 'soft' weather on most days (so 'soft' you could wring it out ) we get it in concentrated bursts, often accompanied by thunder.

But hark - I see another sunny period on the horizon, so you may yet get a photograph of my babies.