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Planting a Summer Hanging Basket
You will Need:
- Plastic-coated wire-frame basket, about 35cm (14in) in diameter
- 340g (12oz) sphagnum moss
- Circle of black plastic sheeting about 60cm (24in) in diameter
- 5 litres (1 gallon) soil-less compost
- Scissors
- Trowel
- Metal Chain
- Sturdy metal hook or hanging bracket
- Raiser (optional)
Plants - you can substitute any you choose
- 3-4 trailing lobelias
- 3 Campanula garganica
- 3 Felicia amelloides 'Variegata'
- 3 white verbenas
- 2 Fuchsia 'Tom Thumb'
- 2 pink ivy-leaved pelargoniums
- 1 dark red regal pelargonium
- 1 Tradescantia pendula
For a long summer display a hanging basket is best planted up in mid to late spring. Remember, however, to harden the plants off before hanging it outdoors. This basket looks delightful in the colour scheme we have chosen, however you can select different colours and plants to create your own individual display.
- Assemble all the necessary materials
- Line the basket with moss up to about half way and lay a circle of plastic as an inner lining over this. Cut a short slit in the base of the plastic for drainage. Add some compost and plant three or four trailing plants such as lobelias so that they are worked through the frame at the height of the plastic lining. The procedure is essentially the same when liners other than sphagnum are used. Make short cross slits for plants in the top half of full plastic or peat-based liners.
- Continue lining the basket with sphagnum. At fairly even spaces work more plants through the frame and add compost.
- Complete lining the basket with sphagnum and finish planting from the top, filling with compost to just below the rim. Stand the basket on the top of a bucket and water thoroughly.
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