Vines in windowsill boxes?

I would like for annual vines like Hyacinth Bean, Morning Glory, Cardinal Climber, & Moonflower to climb plastic poultry netting attached between two support poles for a carport.

Planting the seeds in the ground outside the carport & net is probably not an option. I wouldn't expect the seeds to grow. The ground is rock hard sand & clay.

I'd like to plant them in windowsill boxes underneath the netting, but will windowsill boxes be big (wide, long, deep) enough to house these sort of vines?

If not, what do you suggest the vines be planted in?

Thanks!

Digging out the rock hard sand & clay is the best approach, and ammending the site is the best solution. But you know this. Containers should be wide and as large as one can afford. Building them from wood is a good option; just put them on bricks for drainage. Using water crystals for added moisture is probably a must with containers. I just saw (and bought) a 'water tube' at Walmart the goes into the soil for a month's worth of watering (they say). It was only $1. Your project is really going to look great. I can personally attest to the Hyacinth Bean. What a finish in the fall! Good gardening!

There are three main problems with amending the soil to plant the vines.
1. We're only going to be living in our home until next summer. I don't want to put a lot of effort into this property for that little bit of time left for us & the house. It's being demolished.
2. According to the neighbors, digging in the lead-laced soil isn't good, especially if it's anywhere near rain runoffs & bare areas. The EPA frowns against this sort of activity.
3. I can't do a lot of work with carpal tunnel problems acting every now & then like they're trying to come back after surgeries two years ago, even if using motorized tools, which we have in government storage & can't get into.

So I'll have to rely on containers. I doubt if hubby will make any wood containers for me, so I'm not even going to ask him, so when I buy cheap plastic pots, what size should I look for?

Thanks!

Maybe this can help you out. Brown-eyed susan vine is a good one for container gardening.

http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/containervines.htm

http://www.creatinggardens.com/growing_in_containers.htm

http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/hort/g06840.htm

http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/mgonline/Herbaceous/ann04/03ann04.htm

http://www.journeytoforever.org/garden_con.html

This message was edited Wednesday, Mar 12th 6:36 PM

I plant morning glories in my window boxes every year with no problem at all. Remember they don't need great dirt or a bunch of water, but you do have to remember to water them some. :) Petunias do great too.

CoCo,

Thanks so much for the info! You went to a lot of trouble!

Buy some BIG pots and plant them in there! I planted (3) Wedding Bells morning glories in a pot about 15" diameter by 15" tall. They did fine. Any kind of container will do as long as it holds soil and has good drainage. Just be sure to go with something deep enough for the roots.

Sandy

I've been finding a lot of people recommend "big" containers, but that's vague/ambiguous to me. Others say a 5-gallon bucket will work. Some say a halved whiskey barrel. CoCo's first link states 18" diameter & deep.

I found a site that gives a conversion table for pot size & soil amount. I was going to use 12" pots, but saw that's roughly 3-1/2 gallons. I think I'll go with the 14" pots, which are roughly 6 gallons.

I just don't want to spend a small fortune on two pots that are only going to be used one year. The 14" pots at Wal-Mart are still too rich for my blood at $4.97 each. The pots should be white, but I'll definitely not use 5-gallon buckets. Blech.

I grew this in a 2 gallon pot all summer. Since I didn't get it until the end of June, I'm not certain just how big it would have gotten, but it got over 6' tall.

I took a look at the size of the 14"-15" pots & think they're going to stick up too far above where I want them to start vining & they'll be obnoxiously evident of sitting there & something being planted in them.

So, I went ahead & thought if the neighbor can roto-till his lawn to replant grass, supposedly against the wishes of the Air Force Base/EPA, I was going to dig to amend a shovel depth & width patch of dirt where our grass won't grow between/outside the carport's two support poles to plant my vines.

Low & behold about 2 or 3 inches down, using mostly my feet & body weight instead of my hands, I found concrete! GRRR AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

It's a good thing my hubby bought a fiberglass-handled shovel!

I have grown some of those vines in a small "add on" type of flower box, just made it out of bricks so it could start to climb up my turtle pen (box turtles) anyway it was only 4 bricks high - so maybe 6-8 inches, filled with dirt and planted the seed. They came up well and immediately started climbing up the lattice that was on the back side of the turtle house, by end of last year it took over well and I collected seed, so it had enough room in the soil to do well and set seed. I think a plastic windowbox sitting on the groung would work for you as well.

libby liz,
i would see what plastic, metal, ceramic containers i had around the house, i could use. you could take some black eyed susan vine and have it cascade over the side of the container and no one would see it. an old metal pail, a ceramic pitcher, an old wastebasket etc..... you could always take some paint and an old sponge and put some paint on the plastic containers.
perhaps the vines can go down and around the container before they go up the poles.
how about cinderblocks? or head for a tag/yard sale and see what you can find. use your imagination. and good luck

Can you grow Hyacinth Beans in a shaded area, like the back of my house which is east, and what dose it look like, as I'm looking to grow some vines on my deck for privacy?

Thanks for the ideas, but I've decided to use 5-gallon buckets & place them at the base of each T-bar for the clothesline. They won't stand out so badly there.

I'll wrap the plastic poultry netting around each T-bar & lay some across the top of the 4 clotheslines, attaching all with cable ties. I'll hopefully have a vine-clothed pergola in no time to sit under in the summer!