Winter here in Atlanta seems unusually warm. Yesterday was beautiful, sunny and 70 degrees! While another cold front's on the way, I couldn't help but go pick out some colorful flowers to place in our window boxes.

Last year Brian built me these out of cedar, which we painted the same color as our shutters. By building them ourselves we were able to customize the size, plus they were slightly cheaper than other similar cedar planters. If building window boxes isn't an option, I currently like the look of these and these. If you're wanting cedar ones, check your local home improvement store for affordable options. Ours were in need of a cleanup, simple dish detergent and water did the trick.

When it comes to my window boxes, I prefer to only plant twice a year. Early Spring, then again for Summer. So when picking blooms, I want things that will last for a few months and give continuous color to my boxes. I also prefer to start out with quite a bit in them, then that way, once they grow, my window boxes are bursting over with beautiful foliage. To attain this I water most days and prune dead blooms to encourage more growth (this is my happy place during the Spring, spending about 10 minutes each morning watering, I have a feeling this year I'll have two enthusiastic helpers) It should also be noted that I don't plant directly into the window boxes, but use large plastic containers from home improvement stores, this allows me to easily drop them into each window box and rearrange if needed. For this Spring I used the following...