A Hanging Basket How-To

If you’d like to grow produce and flowers this summer but lack the yard space, you can get big results with beautiful hanging baskets.

Among the edible plants that grow well in hanging baskets are strawberries, small peppers, cherry tomatoes, dill, parsley, sage, and rosemary. Flowers that look great in hanging baskets include fuchsia, petunias, and impatiens.

To get started, choose a container for your hanging garden. You can get a lush look by using a wire basket fitted with a fiber liner. Cut holes in the liner to place your flowers and give your planters a rounded appearance. You could also hang garden pots in braided macramé hangers that you can purchase or make yourself.

When selecting plants for your hanging planter, choose thrillers, fillers, and spillers: put a tall, eye-catching plant in the middle, midsized clumping vegetation or flowers around it, and trailing plants on the outer edge for a pleasing look.

Grow sun-loving plants like tomatoes and peppers in sunny spots, and varieties that don’t need much sun, such as hostas and vinca, in shady locations. A hanging planter on a sunny deck could feature a geranium in the center, petunias as the filler, and sweet potato vines as the spiller. For shady areas, you could use coleus in the center, impatiens as the filler, and ivy as the spiller.

Make sure you use a good potting mix that retains moisture and is filled with nutrients. Water your hanging baskets at the coolest times of the day, at dawn and dusk, so the soil won’t dry out too quickly. You might need to water your baskets daily during the hottest days of summer.