Updated May 2008

Hanging Baskets and watering systems - just what you need for a colourful Summer!!

Hanging Baskets- a great tradition. Part 1

Hanging baskets are one of the great traditions in gardening. Villages and towns, houses and pubs are adorned with colour for months in the Summer and visitors to the UK often take home images of these as a feature of British gardening. In these articles I will be making sure that you have all the basic information you need to make your baskets good enough to photograph!

First of all we will deal with the baskets, liners and composts, then next time we will look at the plants and how to construct the basket. The baskets come in a number of different styles and materials. Plastic baskets are easy to fill as they do not need any lining, but they can look bare as you cannot plant all round the basket to produce that really full effect. If planted well with some really trailing plants they can give a good effect, but with bushy plants only they do not look great. There are a number of variations on this theme, with some baskets having moulded side planting holes, but they never really work that well. Wire baskets are still by far the most popular and the  best for producing a really stunning basket. They allow side and underplanting, and can be adapted to most sites. They come in sizes from 10” upwards, in different colours and grades of steel. In a similar fashion the wall baskets also look good from wire, though the flat metal manger style is becoming more popular especially with colours like verdigris coming through now.

Liners too come in all shapes and sizes with moss still the traditional favourite but moss look liners and fibre liners are also popular. When choosing the basket and liner, ensure the basket is the right size for the site you have in mind, then choose a liner you like, making sure you can plant in it all the way down the basket, and a bracket to match the size of the basket. Putting the right compost in is vital. Soil based composts are too heavy and go too hard, so using a good specialist compost like Westland Tub & Basket compost is ideal.

So now you have the basket, the liner and the potting mix......what else do you need? Apart from the plants you will have to work out how you are going to water and feed the baskets. It  is great to plant them up properly, but if you forget to water them your effort is wasted and the baskets never reach their full potential. If like most people you want to reduce this to a minimum because of time pressures there are a few new products on the market to help you  ensure your plants flourish with much less work!- more next week!!!

Hanging Baskets Part 2

Now you have decided the best basket for you and the spaces you have, we can concentrate on plant selection and planting the basket.

The most economical way to plant a basket is just to use a selection of bedding plants like pansies, marigolds, lobelia etc. However this does not give the length or depth of colour to the flowering period of the basket and can result in disappointment after an initial surge of flower. The best bet is to mix you bedding or filler plants with some basket plants like fuschia, trailing geranium, bacopa, nepeta, helychrysum and not forgetting the Surfinia Petunia. This way you ensure that the basket has body and the ability to flower right through to the end of the Summer.

Many of these plants and plants like them come in different colours, so once you have chosen your colour scheme- either particular shades or a riot of colour, then plant the basket. Many baskets never look good because they are underplanted. By that I mean there are just not enough plants to make a show. No matter how well you look after the basket it will never make a real impression. As the growing and flowering season for the baskets is relatively short, we need to put lots of plants in the basket so it almost looks full from initial planting. I like to use about 3 or 4 main plants like fuschias in the basket plus a mixture of basket plants and bedding. The advantage with many of the basket plants is that you can take cuttings and grow them on for next years basket!

Lets assume we are using moss as our liner- Start planting the basket from the bottom, and make sure the base of the basket has a good firm covering of moss up to about a ¼ way up the basket. Use a proper basket compost such as Westland Tub & Basket- this has been developed just for this use. Fill the space with the compost and start putting the plants in the side. Feed the plants through the side of the basket from the inside out so you don’t damage the delicate roots. It is easier for the plant to grow a few new shoots than replace its roots! Plant at that level, the make up the side to about half way and repeat, then again ¾ the way  up until finally you reach the top. In the top it is often nice to put a feature plant which may be foliage or flower such as a Geranium. Make sure the moss is higher than the compost so that the water is retained and does not run off, also allow for the compost and moss to settle a bit in the basket after watering. Now before you go ahead and do this, just hang on a few more days to next weeks article that will give you some tips about what little extras to put in the basket for a riot of colour, and how to look after it more easily.

  .

Watering systems- new ideas.

New ideas for watering your plants are always welcome- specially if they make your life easier. There are a number of hose attachments that make watering your baskets simpler - a long swan neck with a nozzle on the end is one that stops you having to take out the ladders or take down the baskets every time you water them.

However you still have to remember to water them and give them the water they need (not forgetting last weeks tips!) for the plants to flourish. New systems are becoming ever more popular, and particularly around the patio and in bedding displays MICRO IRRIGATION SYSTEMS are growing in use.

Micro irrigation has a number of advantages. It uses less water because the water is delivered exactly where it is needed and not all over the patio too. It ensures the plants get the water they need every time as the system waters the same area every time. You can programme the watering so you don’t forget to do it, and so best of all you have well watered plants with no effort by you!

The systems can be purchased as starter kits or you can make up your own to your needs. Either way the basic requirements are the same. A flow adapter, 13mm irrigation hose, and micro irrigation pipe. From this you can start to construct your system. Lets say you have two hanging baskets, four tubs and a small bedding out display. By using the 13mm pipe to supply the water to these areas, you can take off the micro tube to feed each planter. So you would use drippers for the baskets and tubs, and micro sprinklers for the bedding. It takes a little thought and planning to set it up, and of course an investment, but the hours and plants saved by using the system can be great. It also means your plants are always looking good, and don’t suffer from that awful wet/dry stress that so often happens in Summer displays. They can be used to great effect in greenhouses too, and again improve water delivery and use, and reduce the problems from you not being there when the plants need water on hot days! In the future we may also see a greater use of the general garden watering systems which again are automatic, but by watering in the evening automatically, they  will reduce the use of water and improve the quality of the garden.