"Round cheese-boxes, powder-blue boxes, fancy soap-boxes, or any similar moderate-sized boxes, make good window-gardens, and can be bought at any grocer's shop for a few pence. They look pretty painted green. Take care not to buy very large boxes, as they are so heavy to move. Window-boxes and pots should never be placed down flat, as then no fresh air can pass up through the holes at the bottom of the box or pot, unless the stand on which they are placed is made of rails like a plate-rack. In the s at I notices that cockle-shells were broken up into small pieces and placed under the pots that stood on flat shelves; cockle-shells can easily be got, and look very clean and pretty. When pots are allowed to stand in saucers filled with water, air cannot possibly get to the roots, and the earth about them may therefore become mouldy."