Thursday, August 02, 2001

Balcony gardening 101

Spent some time working on my back porch, trying to figure out where to put the window boxes on the railing. It's not a very wide porch (only about 3 ft), so I can't just put the planters on top of the 2x4 railing like I had originally planned because it makes it too narrow to get around the table/chairs. I went to Home Depot and bought a few brackets that slip over the top 2x4 and hang down on the outside (forming a ledge where you can set the window box planter), but they were too cheap and flimsy (I need something more heavy duty because the one window box will be almost over the back door of the 1st floor apartment) and I'm afraid that they'll just bend and my window boxes will just tumble out. On the plus side, they work very well at holding those little half-circle terra cotta birth baths, so I'll be putting two of those in (one filled with water, the other filled with seed) to draw birds up to the 2nd floor balcony. Novelty Manufacturing makes a set of brackets that just clip on (with tightening screws), but I can't help thinking of the Ace Novelty Company from the old Daffy Duck cartoons. Gardeners.com sells a set of wrought iron adjustable railing brackets (the over-the-railing type) in two sizes (the 24" long bracket is supposed to support 66 lbs) and are $15 each. Simple Gardens also makes a set of steel brackets that you can get with or without heart decorations for around $27.

Blogs about living in Japan

On a not related note, just ran across Kristen's Japan where she has a daily blog about living in japan and her experiences as a gaijin.

posted by Wuphon's at 9:20 AM