I don't have window boxes up this year, but I do have some. They are the iron and you use the liners in them.

I have brick window sills (what do you call the outside things???) like yours. My iron boxes have two places for screws. Hubby drilled holes in the morter for the screws. You put a little cap in the hole and it is not noticeable at all.

My boxes were black metal but hubby painted them a dark green to match the doors and shutters. We're very hot and my front is full sun so it's hard to keep the boxes damp enough.

I had sweet potato vine, million bells, begonias and either vinca or licorice plant (vine) in mine last year. That's all I can remember, no pics.

I think they'd look charming on your house. And if you get any shade on the windows you'd be using them, that's a plus!

We only used boxes on our two arched windows out front, which works out nice as there is one toward each end of the house.

tina

Tina is right about the kind of window box you could get...it would just screw into the existing window frame (kinda' New Orleans look wrought iron). You would then line it with coconut fibre liners. It gets pretty hot for million bells unless you like to water 5 times a day :^), but the sweet potato vine (several different colors) and moss rose would work very well. Any succulent would do well too.

Your windows are unusual and a stunning focal point. I love the southwestern theme you have going. You can play up the colored pottery and urns,statues that most of us cannot. I wouldn't have window boxes on those windows-just my opinion but several unusual and different sized/ designed pots in groups-yes! Succulents (hanging-wow)as jaybird says. No cactus cuz it will be a concern. Love your donkey. Wish that was my porch!

As to needing to water constantly...there's a product called Soil Moist that one can mix with one's potting soil. Sucks up water and then releases it to the soil as the soil dries. Works pretty well...

It's the same acrylic polymer that is in baby diapers. I wouldn't want to use it in a landscape, but it makes sense in pots/windowboxes.

Awesome porch! I like daisy's idea of a mix of pots and planters (like that cute donkey!) If you want something that runs along the bottom of the windows, maybe you could find an iron planter that is the right height (like below but maybe wider and lower.) That way you could move it out from under the porch for awhile when you get a nice rain.

Thank you so much for the input! Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough, but the window boxes I have in mind are not for the windows pictured. I simply posted this photo because it shows what the windows are like where I want to use the window boxes. The windows I want to use the boxes on are on the front of my house - not on the front porch as pictured. (I just don't happen to have a good photo showing those windows at the moment.)

I like the simple look of these English Garden window boxes:

And I wouldn't have to worry about painting them, since I have black iron work in the railings (gosh, need to paint the railing though - as evidenced by the pic I posted! LOL!), and the yard light is black metal as well.

The only thing that concerns me now is whether or not my windows are actually high enough off the ground where I want to use the window boxes to look right. I just found this -- an OLD photo of the windows I'd want to use the box on (taken long before we created the new flowerbed which is currently in front of these windows), but you can see how low to the ground the windows are ...

and with the new plants we've installed there, if they grow much, well ... just not 100% sure how it'd look.

Jaybird, I love potato vine! I've got it trailing out of a couple of planters that flank my entry, and also in a large planter on the side of the house. It's one thing I have a hard time killing! ;-) The area where I'd use the window boxes is part sun/part shade so there's actually quite a bit I could plant there. And I don't mind watering daily ... I actually enjoy tending to my plants - unless the mosquitos are out in full force, and then I just do it in a hurry! I had never heard of Soil Moist, but will look into that!

Thank you again for the suggestions and kind comments! I appreciate you guys helping me to think this through!

Aunt Jen, I always love looking at your house! I'm a little late to jump on this, but had an idea~why couldn't you use some sort of hook, and have it rest on the brick sill? If you can get something that's a little flexable, that might even be better since you might have to do a little adjustment. I'm thinking of a large 'S' hook(just bought a package of 2 at Big Lots), attached to the basket and resting on the brick. Home Depot/Lowe's might have the same, or maybe you wouldn't need it to be flexible. Where there's a will, there's a way is *my* motto! ;o)

Aunt Jen, I always love looking at your house! I'm a little late to jump on this, but had an idea~why couldn't you use some sort of hook, and have it rest on the brick sill? If you can get something that's a little flexable, that might even be better since you might have to do a little adjustment. I'm thinking of a large 'S' hook(just bought a package of 2 at Big Lots), attached to the basket and resting on the brick. Home Depot/Lowe's might have the same, or maybe you wouldn't need it to be flexible. Where there's a will, there's a way is *my* motto! ;o)