Flowerful Fence Basket Tutorial

I love a good fence, but they’re not the most aesthetically pleasing piece in a garden. Luckily they’re so easy to pretty up. You can plant climbing plants like climbing roses, ivy, grapes, or clematis. Training a tree to grow horizontally via the espalier method is another fun option. But those options take some time to see results & depending on the type of plant, it might take a while for your garden vision to come to its full fruition. So, what’s a gardener to do if they want immediate gardening impact on their fence? Plant a fence basket with rigorous growing annuals, that’s what. Keep on reading to find out how to plant a fence basket.

Materials

• Fence basket (I prefer wrought iron with a coco fiber liner)
• Plastic grocery bags
• Scissors
• Potting soil
• Fertilizer
• Plants (I love fast-growing annuals for immediate impact like supertunias)
• Water

Method

1. Attach your fence basket to your fence using the included mounting materials.
2. Take a couple of grocery bags, line the basket with them & trim to fit. Make sure to poke a lot of holes in the bags using scissors in order to create drainage for your plants.
3. Fill the basket with potting soil & add in fertilizer.
4. Make wells in the soil & plant your plants. Pat down the soil around the plants firmly.
5. Water well. Add more soil if necessary.

Tips

• I always line my coco fiber baskets with grocery bags because otherwise, they drain way too quickly, which doesn’t give the plants enough time to drink up the water that they need.
• Save money by choosing annuals that get large, quickly. One Supertunia Vista can grow over 3 feet long, which means you can get away with only planting one plant per basket. I plant flower pouches every year using just one Supertunia Vista per pouch & believe me, one plant goes a long way. Read my flower pouch tutorial for more info.
• Check your basket daily to see if your plants need water. These types of pots dry out quickly & will need to be watered every day during the heat of the summer in full sun areas.
• Add in a slow-release fertilizer when planting. Then follow up with a water soluble flower fertilizer once a week to get more blooms for your buck.
• You can also install a fence basket on a railing or a deck.

I posted a similar article last week regarding how to plant hanging baskets, but I feel like a fence basket deserves its own post. Hanging baskets are everywhere, but fence baskets not so much. I first came across them through a Garden Answer video on YouTube & I have been planting one up every year since then. They are just so easy to plant & have created a lot of interest in my garden. I always look forward to pulling the basket out of my garage in the spring & coming with new container recipes.

Like I said in my hanging basket tutorial, I always change up the color theme of my front yard every year & this year I chose to go with a sunrise/sunset theme. So, my garden is graced with pink, yellow, orange, purple & coral flowers this year. I wanted to do a simple mixed fence basket this year using pink, orange & yellow flowers. Supertunia Vista Bubblegum was at the top of my wishlist for this basket when I was planning out my garden this year because it is such a vigorous grower. I wanted a plant that would just knock it out of the park & keep on growing & growing on my fence, which is exactly what Bubblegum does. I purchased a Bubblegum flower pouch a couple of years ago & it grew like a weed! I also wanted a lantana for their ability to incorporate multiple colored flowers on a single plant. Luckily enough, I was able to find both Supertunia Vista Bubblegum & a lantana in all the colors that I wanted, aptly named Lantana Landmark Rose Sunrise. A lantana with the word sunrise in its name when I was already planning a sunrise/sunset theme? Could it get any more perfect than that? I also popped in a few gazania seedlings that I grew from seed & my basket was complete.

I planted the fence basket 2 weeks ago & it has been thriving ever since. Predictably, Bubblegum is beefing out quickly & the lantana is holding its own right next to it. I have never grown lantana before, so I find myself just staring at it in awe every day when I check the fence basket. It’s just such a beautiful plant & I have never grown anything like it. Plus, the plants pair so well, with the small delicate flowers of the lantana & the sturdy supertunia flowers & the color combo of pink, orange & yellow is just so pretty. This basket pulls together my sunrise/sunset theme perfectly. I can’t recommend this mix enough if you are still racking your brain on what color theme you should choose for your own fence basket or any container. Happy gardening, everyone!