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I just moved which means I do not have a pond anymore. However, having just moved into a basement, with large window wells, I have completed an extensive window well plantings project. I have two window wells. Here is the first one. I am always starting new projects! We could easily add a great water feature here, but I am not sure if we will.
Window wells are primarily for drainage, so you want to be careful not to plant anything in the main area which has a lot of gravel to facilitate drainage. Instead, I have mainly
utilized the above-window-well area as well as the steps for my plantings. It is okay to have a small container garden at the bottom, so I have a few pots holding a mixture of some crawly flowering plants as well as impatiens. My window wells end up getting about 8 hours of sun during the summer because they are large and facing south. The steps in the window well are for safety - in case you need to get out of your basement you can easily do so. While I have planted about 1/2 and 1/2 impetiens and some evergreen vines, I made sure to leave some stepping areas for the reason of emergency exiting, as well as entering the window well to tend to my plants. The top of the window well is also surrounded by a dense planting of the vines which are eventually going to grow down to make a very cozy green window well. My cats seem to enjoy it. One thing to note is that stray cats seem to want to go down into the window well and use it as a litter box. The other thing is that I have had a mole and a frog get down in here - once the vines have crawled all the way down I think the moles will be able to come back up. However, make sure you help them out or they will die! The way that I have planted the steps is the top step received a coconut fiber rectangular planting box which I filled with good dirt. The second to top step is more essential than the first for drainage, so I took up some 5 inch planters that usually are free with plants that you buy throughout the year, and stuck an old sock around the outside (similar to how I reduce soil erosion for pots inside the pond), filled the bottom with a bit of gravel and added dirt and the flower. There are 8 or 10 planters like this on the bottom step.
The key things to remember is - do not allow soil to erode into the gravel, this reduces the drainage capabilities of the window well. And - do not put in *t0o* many planters for the same reason. And - leave space for your feet to go in there and tend to your "garden"!
Have fun!
I'll be posting updates on the window well throughout the summer :)