Hanging basket tips from the pros
peradventure you ’ve admire jaw - droppinghanging basketsonPinterestorInstagramor hanging from the loose posts along Main Street . But that ’s not always the reality in my garden — how about yours ? If you ’ve been bid for great baskets instead of rise them , take a flavour at the ward-heeler from three experts who have been designing and growing flow baskets for years . Put their tip and technique to work and you ’ll have the planting you ’ve only dreamed of year after class .
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How to put your hanging basket together
Every yr the city of Waynesboro , Virginia , has gorgeous hang basket like this one in the photo that impart color and beauty to the town . Here ’s how Stephen Black , City Horticulturist and the man in accusation of them , does it .
Get a big basket and a liner
Bigger is better when it come to hang baskets . The heavy gauge steel wire one in the pic above is 18 inch in diameter and 11 inch deep so there ’s plenteousness of elbow room for potting medium and stem growth . Stephen get his from a sweeping provider but you may findlarge uncompromising basketsfrom Kinsman Company . Stephen also usesSupaMoss , ( find it at your local garden center ) to describe the baskets – it ’s a sheet of recycle cotton line with perforated charge card . It holds up well and help retain wet , but Stephen care it because it ’s well-fixed to plant through the sides .
Plant the sides of your basket
Once the lining is in , it ’s time for the plant . attend basketful are often seen from below so instead of hold off for the plants to pour forth over the side , Stephen plants the side of the ocean liner , too . That put up a pretty view faster than if just the top of the basketful is sate . Plants with trailing and mounding habits go best . And since the baskets stay up from May to mid - October , foliageplays an important role , too .
Stephen’s tips for planting a hanging basket
plant your hanging basket is easy . Here ’s what to do :
If the basket has horizontal and perpendicular wires , as the one in the illustration below does , you have a built - in planting grid . Otherwise , stagger the flora and allow a few inches between them so there ’s room for outgrowth . This basketball hoop has three layers and Stephen regain it fits about 30 small fire hydrant . But you could use multipackannualsor few with child plants . Do n’t set vigorous plants , such as sweet potato vine , next to each other or the basket will look wonky .
Stephen keeps the baskets consistently moist with a pocket-sized artificial lake in the center . The representative above exhibit you how it travel together . It ’s made from a 4 - in - longsighted small-arm of 4 - in - diameter plastic punch waste pipe . He covers the bottom of the drainpipe with a art object of the handbasket liner . Drip irrigationtubing runs down the chain and into the artificial lake but there ’s no emitter — Stephen found that they irrigate too tardily to keep these big basket hydrated . The tubing fills the artificial lake with water day by day and it step by step rob in , keeping the potting mix evenly moist and the plants growing and blooming gayly .
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Best tools & materials for hanging baskets
Would n’t you have a go at it to see the hang baskets in the photo above ? you may if you visit Victoria , British Columbia . Supervisor , Mike Creighton , along with the Parks and Rec stave make and hang more than 1,300 of these beauties every year . These baskets are packed with plants and hang on busy streets with lots of reflected rut . Here are his essential peter that keep them looking capital and a few works that are swell in hanging baskets :
Hanging baskets need extra attention
have ’s present a fact about hanging baskets : They ’re a hostile place for plants to grow so they need some extra attention . Rebecca Finneran , Michigan State University Extension Senior Horticulture Educator has some tips for keep them in great chassis :
Hanging baskets need lots of watering!
Hanging baskets need tearing — probably day by day in the hot part of summer . Just assume that your basket will get hyper teetotal at some point . When peat - based potting mixes dry out out , the surface forms a hard crust and urine just runs around the sides and out the bottom , leave the shopping mall osseous tissue wry . When this happens take the basket down and place it in atrugorwheelbarrowfull of water supply to rehydrate the potting premix . After an hour , take it out and rehang the basket .
Don’t forget to feed
Make indisputable to expend a potting mix with slow - releasefertilizeralready mixed in or summate your own at planting metre . In summation , use a liquidplant foodaccording to label commission at half the recommend rate once a month to keep plants growing and blossom . If you do n’t point out new growth , increase the charge per unit to full strength once a month .
Groom your hanging basket
Rebecca says there ’s always a point in the life of a hang basket where you take the air by and think , “ Wow , that looks really large ! ” and a week by and by you intend , “ Wow , that search really ugly ! ” Most hang basket plant life finally get leggy and need a haircut — you might find it difficult to remove all that growth , but the plant will appear better if you do . turn off most plant back by one - third . Vigorous plants , such as gratifying white potato vine , can be pruned by half and they ’ll bounce back within a few hebdomad .
That attractively blooming basket you bribe at the garden center every yr was probably planted in late winter and will soon be in need of a boost to stay flowery . Rebecca recommends popping your basket out of its little plastic pot as soon as you get home and replanting it in a unlike hoop that ’s 2 to 4 inch larger , such as the one in the instance above . This provides more way for roots to grow and some protection from dry out out .
Choose a basket to fit your style
Are you ready to pop out planting hanging baskets ? Whether you ’re looking to save fourth dimension and study in the garden , desire a timeless , elegant feeling or a special basket that ’s as showy as the plants , this group of hanging baskets has you covered .
lend Some capriciousness
Made from steel wire and a zinc finishing , this is ahanging basketand ornament in one . It come in four size : 11 , 16 , 24 and 28 inches . The liner that ’s show here ( but sold one by one atTerrain.com ) has a fictile tray layer between a forked layer of jute and coco fiber to aid save piss .
Go Classic
The Old Fashioned wall hanging basket fromKinsman Companyis a classic . It ’s made from heavy gauge blade telegram and coat with plastic to last for decades . The horizontal rings between the vertical support help keep the ocean liner in good shape . Baskets range from 12 to 24 inches .
lay aside Some piece of work
You wo n’t have to irrigate as much with this 10 - inchself - tearing wall hanging basketfrom Gardener ’s Supply Company . It has a basket weave pattern and comes in three colors : white , brownish and pale blue . The reservoir below nurse three cup of pee .
