Hanging baskets were one of my first forays into gardening, so they have always held a special place in my gardening heart. They are a fantastic choice for budget-friendly gardening, are a complete breeze to set-up & can be hung almost anywhere. What’s not to love about hanging baskets? Now all you need to know is how to set one up & you’ll be hanging up one of your one creations soon enough. Read on for my guide on how to plant a hanging basket.
Materials
- Hanging basket (I prefer wrought iron with coco fiber liners)
- Plastic grocery bag
- Scissors
- Potting soil
- Fertilizer
- Plants (look for vigorous growers to get more bang for your buck)
- Water
Method
- Find a plastic grocery bag that is about the same size as your hanging basket. Line the basket with the grocery bag, trim to fit & use scissors to poke holes all throughout the bag for drainage.
- Add in potting soil & fertilizer. Mix well.
- Make small wells in the soil & plant your plants, making sure to cover the root balls with soil. Pat down the soil firmly.
- Hang your hanging basket in it’s desired location. Water in thoroughly. Add in more soil if necessary.
Tips
- The grocery bag lining helps hold water around the roots, without it the water will drain immediately without giving a chance for the roots of the plants to take in the water. That being said, make sure to poke enough holes in the bag to allow for good drainage. Most plants do not like to sit in water.
- Choose plants that are drought tolerant if you do not want to water often.
- Check your soil daily to see if it needs to be watered.
- Full sun locations will require you to water your hanging baskets at least once a day during the height of summer, whereas shady locations can get by with watering once a week. Plan accordingly.
I always plant up two hanging baskets by our front door, as well as two porch pots. I feel like it makes our front door feel more welcoming & homey. It’s a pretty shady area, so I generally stick to impatiens, but we did a big prune job on our evergreens near our front door a couple of weeks ago, so we’ll see how much more sun reaches our containers now. I also plant up a fence basket & walkway border with annual flowers in our front yard. I change up the front yard flower color scheme every year to keep things interesting & challenge myself. I love all the colors, all of them! Therefore, it isn’t easy to restrict myself to one specific color palette, but I like how cohesive a color scheme looks. I feel like it helps pull everything together. That being said, I go completely hog wild & plant all the colors in my backyard. Vegas at Christmas is pretty much my goal for that area.
I had a super colorful plan this year for my front yard, a rainbow theme, which would satisfy my need for all the colors while still being able to pull it all together. I got the idea from a beautiful rainbow porch basket that I saw on r/gardening last summer. I had plans of expanding that theme & creating my own rainbow fence basket with a matching rainbow walkway border & monochromatic containers. However, as I’m sure all of you have found, the coronavirus pandemic has made it hard to find a lot of things this year, especially very specific items. It seems like everyone is getting into gardening nowadays too, which is awesome! But it seems like all the plants are flying off the shelves like hotcakes around here. I knew that my rainbow theme would need to be shelved for another year & decided to go with a sunrise/sunset theme instead.
So, my front yard flower color palette of the year consists of pink, orange, purple, yellow & coral. I planted one hanging basket & one porch pot with coral begonias. Then I planted my other hanging basket & porch pot with pink impatiens. I placed the matching hanging baskets & porch pots diagonally from each other, on either side of my front door. My fence basket consists of one Supertunia Vista Bubblegum, one Rose Sunrise Landmark Lantana & a few of my gazania seedlings (stay tuned for a fence basket tutorial soon). Last but certainly not least, I planted up my walkway border with purple wave petunias & mixed color marigold seeds that I hope will end up sprouting. *fingers crossed* I always do a mixed walkway border that incorporates marigolds. All & all, I am really pleased with how it has all come together. The colors look so nice together & all of the plants are off to a really great start, hopefully, the marigold seeds will follow suit. Happy gardening, everyone!
Like this article? Check out my plant pouch tutorial for another easy flower container guide.
The Plantiful Gardener 