How to Plant in a Hanging Basket

Hanging baskets can give a splash of color to a porch.

Container gardening is fantastically versatile and enjoyable, and it offers year-round opportunities for bringing color and texture to all areas of the garden. Baskets are just another variation of container gardening and whether you live in an apartment with a tiny balcony or window booth, or a house with a sizeable garden and patio, this is a fun gardening style.

Things You'll Need

• Hanging baskets
• Soil
• Plant seeds

Instructions

Using Hanging Baskets

1. Move your baskets around. Hanging baskets are great for taking advantage of particular lighting and climatic conditions, which makes them even more adaptable. Plants that are too tender to be grown in the more exposed parts of your garden will appreciate being nurtured in baskets close to the shelter of the house where they can be protected in extreme weather conditions.

2. Change with the seasons. Baskets allow you to herald the changes throughout the year. Planting baskets with bulbs will lift your spirits as the dark days of winter give way all too slowly to spring. Baskets can become beautiful displays during summer when bedding plants burst into life and blaze away well into fall. Lilies and fuchsias add an autumnal glow, while heather, pansies and berried evergreens provide cheery color all through winter.

3. Grow exotic flowers. With basket planting, you can indulge your penchant for plants that would not thrive in your garden soil. While it is impractical to transform your garden soil permanently, it is perfectly possible to fill and maintain a basket with soil not available in your yard.

4. Extend your growing area. When you have planted on every spare inch of soil in the garden and have run climbers up every vertical surface, baskets hanging from wall-mounted brackets or even from the ceilings of pergolas and other structures contribute yet another level of interest.

5. Grow herbs. Not only is this pretty, but it's also practical. There is no need to stray down into the depths of the garden on a winter's lunchtime to collect a sprig of thyme when you have a well-stocked herb basket just outside the kitchen door.

Planting a Hanging Basket

1. Remove the basket chain using pliers. Place the basket on a flower pot to hold it steady as you work. Press the basket liner into position.

2. Combine water-retaining granules with the compost and add water. The granules will swell, making the compost more bulky, so do not fill the basket until the gel has absorbed the water and appears jelly-like.

3. Add a layer of compost to the basket. Trailing plants will soften the lines of the basket and provide all-over interest. Make an X-shaped cut in the liner for each plant.

4. Gently compress the rootball of each small plant to feed it through the liner into the compost.

5. Continue planting the container, building up the layers of compost and plants and firming in well until the basket is almost full. Plant upright plants toward the center of the top layer, surrounded by trailing plants. Leave sufficient space for watering.

Tips & Warnings

• Stick with one color scheme in each basket.