Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Hanging Basket

Credit: Terry Guscott

• Make sure you gather all the plants you need for the basket before you begin. A common error is to use too few plants. For a typical 45-centimetre basket, Claude LeDoux recommends around 27 plants.

• Line the basket with the basket liner to just above the second-from-bottom wire rung. Place the wick through the bottom of the basket so that half is in the basket and the other half is coiled in the drip basin.

• Fill the basket with soil to the same height as the moss and firm the soil against the moss to increase soil volume. Keep the wick upright.

• Add half the controlled-release fertilizer (14-14-14).

• Mix the fertilizer into the soil.

• Plant the bottom layer of plants, from outside in, just above the second wire rung of the basket.

• The bottom layer is complete.

• Line the top half of the basket with moss.

• Fill the basket with soil to a slight mound in the centre.

• Incorporate the remaining fertilizer and place the top layer of plants around the basket. To complete, dig a hole in the centre of the basket and firmly plant the last few plants. At his course, Claude recommends a variegated geranium (Pelargonium Wilhelm Langguth’) and two Calceolaria ‘Sunshine’ plants.

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