Plant some colour for the summer with a hanging basket.

Hanging baskets can brighten up your house, garden, shed or patio and there are loads of different plants that you can grow in them with very little trouble.  You can get hanging baskets in wire, wicker or plastic and the choice of flowers is entirely up to you, so a colourful summer basket adds a really personal touch.

Essential Kit

Hanging Basket - Method Dan
     

 

 

 

 

Flower suggestions

Basket sides:
Lobelia
Busy Lizzies
Impatiens

Centre/top of the basket:
Fuchsia
Geranium
Verbena
Petunia
Surfinia

Top Tip

Wrap root balls in a cylinder of paper or a small plastic bag when pushing in to the compost – this will prevent damage to the roots and stems.

     

Creating your hanging basket

Preparation:

  • Put your basket on top of the bucket to stabilise it.
  • Line your basket with some moss or a fibre liner (you can buy these), and then lay a bin liner on top of this and cut to size. This will prevent too much water loss from your basket.
  • Mix your compost (peat free) with the water retaining gel and the slow release fertiliser.

  

Planting:

  • Add compost to the basket, up to around half full is good.
  • Push the root ball of the young plants into the compost – make sure you are gentle so as to prevent damage. You can do this through the holes around the edge of the basket to ensure a good colourful coverage.
  • Add more compost and add more plants round the side.
  • Put a final layer of compost on to the top of the basket, sloping it so that it forms a reservoir in the middle (for larger baskets it can be worth using a plastic reservoir for watering. The compost should be filled up to about an inch from the top of the basket.
  • Water the basket well, making sure there is plenty in the central reservoir so that it will slow-release to the basket.
     

 
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