• House Tour
    • Reveals
  • About
    • Smith Life
    • Disclosure and Privacy Policy
      • Terms and Conditions
      • Store Affiliates
  • Contact Me
    • Want a Button?
  • Shop
    • Floral Printable Planners
    • Paint eBooks and Packages
    • Wedding Binders & Extra Printables!
    • Planner Bundles
    • Planner Accessories
    • Home Decor Printables!
  • Cart
    • Bloglovin
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

Happily Ever After, Etc.

Creating Our Own Fairytale

  • Happily Ever After, Etc.
  • Home
  • Home Decor
    • My Home
    • Paint
    • Before and After
    • Tablescapes
    • Mood Boards
    • Furniture
  • DIY & Crafts
    • New to Cricut – Start Here
    • Cricut
    • Resin
    • Scrapbooking
  • Organization & Planning
    • Organization
    • Planner
  • Holidays
    • Christmas
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Easter
  • Wedding
    • Cricut Wedding Projects
    • Free Wedding Binder
    • Bride Bag- The Ultimate Wedding Planner

How to Plant Low Budget Window Boxes for a High Impact

Hey y'all,

So you finally put up your brand new window boxes… but they’re sitting they’re empty, silently mocking you. Or maybe you just cleaned the plants from last season out of the boxes and you’re itching to plant new beautiful flowers. If you’re like me and you spent all your money on the new window boxes or maybe refreshing the boxes season after season is getting a little pricey you may be looking for a fun arrangement that packs a big punch.

That’s what we’re working with today. A few plants that will grow big and beautiful but aren’t super expensive. Cost effective but still show stoppers. Maybe next season we’ll pick a more dynamic combination but this season the whole point is to fill these babies up without emptying my wallet.

Ready to get started?

Putting up your own window boxes? Check out this post on How to Install a Window Box for easy installation instructions!

Step 1: Pick Budget Friendly Plants

Typically when you’re planting a window box (or any potted arrangement) you want to work with plants in 3 categories. Thrillers, fillers and spillers. That means you want a big showy tall plant or flower for the back or center of the arrangement. This is the tallest piece that stands up and is seen over all the other plants… maybe a tall lily or a group of salvia. Then you have fillers… these babies grow out instead of up. Something like the vinca we’re using today that will have alot of flowers and take up a lot of space. This is the bulk of your arrangement so if you’re feeling fancy you could have 2-3 fillers!

Just remember it really depends on the size of your container and that repetition is key when making a beautiful arrangement. If your window boxes are huge you could have 3 vinca and 3 impatients. Then finish everything off with your spillers… this is the plant that will drape over the side of your container. Typically you’ll see long trailing plants like petunias or ferns here. The photo above are a few fun petunia’s that I picked up for another arrangement… they come in so many colors are varieties!

Since window boxes don’t allow a lot of room for root growth you don’t need to leave a lot of space between plants. You can really pack them in for big, full, beautiful boxes right from the start.

BUT if you’re trying to stick to a budget picking plants like petunias and vincas that grow big quickly will give you a lot of bang for your buck while still leaving space in between plants.

Salvia are also really budget friendly and grow quick if you wanted to add a taller option to the back of this window box.

Keep in mind that planting all sun loving plants (like vinca) in a shady spot will not work…. do a bit of research (or hit up your local plant center!) to pick budget friendly plants that like your light. Making sure to pick the right plants is crucial to the success of your window boxes. My spot gets a lot of morning and even afternoon sun so I picked petunia’s and vinca… specifically Proven Winners Supertunia Bordeaux and Supertunia Vista Silverberry. The vinca were simply a hot pink vinca from the local nursery.

Now that we have our plants picked let’s get started!

Fill with Potting Mix

Let’s get started!

When planting anything picking the right plant is half the battle… but for the most part we’ll be working with annuals in containers. That means we can have a bit more fun experimenting!

Either way we’ll plant our flowers the same way regardless of which plants we’re working with.

Start by picking a nutrient rich potting mix and filling your window box half way. This will give you room to add your plants.

Remember that when you put any plant in a container it’s depending solely on you for everything. So it’s important to use high nutrient potting mix (it’s not going to pull any nutrients from the ground after all) and water them frequently. Otherwise your plants will be hungry and thirsty… which means no blooms!

Once you have your potting mix situated we’ll move on to the fun part… adding plants!

Plant your Flowers

Now go ahead and lay out your plants. In most cases you’ll be working with small pots here (like these little 4 inch pots) or perhaps larger plants that you’re going to separate. Either way start by laying your plants out in the exact spot you’re thinking about planting them.

This way you’ll be sure that you like the arrangement before actually planting them!

In my case we’re only doing 3 plants per window box to save on cost but you could really pack quite a few plants in here if you wanted. That’s the fun part about containers!

Once you’re pleased with your arrangement go ahead and remove each plant from it’s container and add it to the planter. Then use one of the containers to add potting soil to your window box until each plant is covered. You don’t want to see any of those roots!

Eventually those roots will disappear… now’s the time to press down firmly around each plant. You’ll want to make sure there aren’t any air bubbles trapped in the soil and that the roots are snug as a bug before moving on.

Just be careful… Mom found this little frog in one of our containers when removing the plant! You never know what you’ll find when working in the garden!

Prune and Water

At this point we’re soooo close to finished!

You could really water everything in and call it a day but with most plants actually planting them stresses them out. They’re going to be tempted to send out lots of roots and lots of blooms at the same time. BUT plants can’t really create blooms until their roots are established.

So go ahead and grab your pruning sheers. Prune each plant back to about 6 inches tall. This seems cruel (and removes any pretty blooms that are currently existing… which sucks) but in the long run it’s so much better for your flowers. Without all that pretty green up top to keep alive the plants can focus on roots for a minute and then when they do start pushing growth up top they’ll push twice as much.

Which means bigger plants with even more blooms.

Perfect!

Of course once you’re done pruning don’t forget that water… lots of it directly to the roots! Then you can start your drip system… delivering water directly to the roots everyday is the perfect solution. Although I still like to add a bit of water soluble fertilizer once a week to all my annuals… it really makes a difference.

Now we’re done! Go inside and take a shower… you probably need one. Then keep checking back… in a few weeks your plants will be taking off. Lots of blooms for your buck.

Goal achieved!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is How-to-Install-Window-Boxes-31.jpg

Enjoy!

There are a million different ways to plant your window boxes (and maybe next year we’ll do something different) but between these Supertunia’s and Vinca’s these little window boxes will be full of color in a week or two. Which is exactly what I wanted!

Honestly I can’t wait for the entire garden to fill in… but we’ve come so far in such a short amount of time. Not bad for my first garden!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is How-to-Install-Window-Boxes-22.jpg
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is How-to-Install-Window-Boxes-26.jpg
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is How-to-Install-Window-Boxes-24.jpg

UPDATE: Here’s a few photos of the window boxes after letting them grow for a month. The Supertunia’s are looking A-M-A-ZING! I think I may use them again next year with different thrillers in the back. These photos are from my new DIY Pallet Pathway Post if you want to check out the entire updated front yard.

Enjoy!

You made it through the entire post? That means you're one of my new favorite people! I'd love to be friends and see what else you would like to read about! Leave me a comment and then sign up for your very own FREE paint planner.... so that you can keep track of every single paint color with ease!
Welcome back! I'd love to be friends and see what else you would like to read about! Leave me a comment and then sign up for your very own FREE paint planner.... so that you can keep track of every single paint color with ease!

Show me some LOVE y'all:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Related

«
»

Garden 0

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

sidebar betsy I'm Betsy, Home Decor Enthusiast, Yorkie Mama, Crafter, Blogger, Picky Eater, Chief Mess Maker, Antique Hoarder and Graphic Designer. You can generally find me working on (attacking with a paintbrush) the 3 bed, 2 bath home we are currently renting! Our home might not be perfect but it is ours & if you hang out long enough you'll see that what we lack in know-how we make up for in passion!
Shop My Craft Room

Shop My Home

Featured Articles

15 Fabulous Ideas to Organize your Laundry Room
25 FREE Printables For Your Home!
What to do with EXTRA Paint with Happily Ever After Etc
10 Ways to Make Your Bed EXTRA Comfy with Happily Ever After Etc.
Ready to Pick your Perfect Paint Color? We'll help you with our 6 Day FREE E-Course

Hey y’all,

Profile

I'm Betsy, Home Decor Enthusiast, Yorkie Mama, Picky Eater, Chief Mess Maker, & Graphic Designer...

A Little Note!

Many of the links on Happily Ever After, Etc. are affiliate links. If you purchase a product after clicking an affiliate link, I receive a small percentage of the sale for referring you, at zero cost to you! How awesome is that? Purchasing through affiliate links is an easy, painless way to help out your favorite bloggers. Thank you so much for your continued love and support! Read the full disclosure here!

Instagram

Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2025 · Darling theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2025 · Darling Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in · Privacy Policy