Gardening without a garden - Ruth and Phil Alampi WRCA-TV, New York | TV Guide Buffalo, 23-29 July 1955

You can add gaiety to your home by using window or porch boxes filled with bright, long-blooming flowers.

Start with rich topsoil which has good humus-two parts loam soil and one part humus. To a bushel of this add a pint of bonemeal, half a pint of a garden fertilizer and a pint of lime. Since the plants are set close together, there is terrific root competition for the available food. Once the plants are established, each watering should contain a small amount of liquid fertilizer. It's better to add a diluted solution often than a heavy application every three or four weeks.

For sunny areas, use red geraniums as the center planting, underplanted or flanked by white petunias, or white geraniums banked by red or pink petunias. The gray foliage of dusty miller, surrounded by blue ageratum or vari-colored coleus makes a colorful display. So does China aster, underplanted by French marigolds or alyssum.

Trailing plants to hang over the edge of the box are English ivy, Kenilworth ivy, tradescantia, variegated vinca or ivy-leaved geranium.

For shade, use caladiums or tuberous begonias, holly fern or Boston fern, fuchsia, Impatiens-balsam, Anthericum and rex begonia.

Do you want a portable, quick and long-blooming window or porch box garden? Take trowel in hand and start soon. You'll never regret it.