Advice for a planter box – everything we put in there just dies. :/

Hi Folks.

We’ve got these two lovely, heavy, concrete planter boxes. We like them spcifically because they’re the perfect size to sit under our front window, facing the street and are heavy and just… cool.

BUT…

The are not particularly deep or large and have no drainage or anything AND they sit under the eaves of our roof so don’t get any real rainfall. Their dimensions are about a meter long, about 25cm deep and maybe just under 20cm wide.

Previously we had a kind of ginger plant there – but the thing was constantly sulking and folding up it’s leaves – but at least it remained alive.

We bought some kangaroo paws – thinking these would be drought resistent and they gave up the ghost almost immediately (although my partner didn’t really spread out the roots of their little ball and do the whole laying them out into the soil thing). You can see the last sad remnant in the pic.

We’re looking for something that grows into a little hedge like thing – or cool exotic flowers – but doesn’t get taller than about 1m (the height of the window). We like natives or jungle floor things with rich, dark leaves. But very open to suggestions.

Any advice on this? Like how to get the box to retain water a bit better? OR species to put in there? I am happy to water occasionally – and I do consistently when it gets dry – but I can’t mollycoddle these things y’know?

Thanks for any pointers folks!