Whether you live in a small townhouse or a country cottage, anyone can try container gardening. This is a great and easy way to brighten up your outdoor space.
If you wish to bring the outdoors right up to your door, hanging baskets are a simple solution. They can be fixed to a wall, be it the house or in the garden. To fences or suspended from beams of a porch.
They are colourful and don’t take long to prepare, but give months of colour and pleasure.
Choosing pots and plants.
Containers come in all shapes & sizes-e.g. pots, troughs, ½ barrels, window boxes. In materials such as plastic, terracotta, wood, wire and stone. When choosing a container consider the site—natural materials look good with traditional buildings or amongst plants, while plastics suit more modern environments. The sizes of plants should also be considered—you don’t want a tiny plant in a huge pot, or a large plant in a pot too small, as it will need repotting often. Provide plenty of large drainage holes in the bottom and ensure ceramic pots are frost proof. Sinks, buckets, old chimney pots can all be used—be imaginative!
Lots of plants do well in containers and hanging baskets. Here are some to choose from:
Clematis, dwarf conifers, patio roses, begonias and petunias.
Bulbs: crocus, hyacinths, daffodils.
Hanging baskets: fushia, lobelia, ivy, impatiens or busy lizzie and fruits such as strawberry. Trailing plants are excellent for baskets.
Planting the containers
It can take about 20-30 mins to plant up a container or basket.
Choose your container, add drainage material e.g. broken pot or crockery chips or gravel. You could also line the container with bubblewrap to protect against frost and reduce water loss.
Add good quality potting compost containing fertiliser to just below the rim of pot.
Bulbs should be planted towards the bottom of the pot at 3 times their depth.
Put a permanent plant in the centre of pot or at ends of window boxes. Trailing plants should be placed around the edges to allow them to trail over the edges.
Small blocks can be placed beneath pots to help drainage.
When selecting plants think about where they are going. You wouldn’t plant tall growing plants in a window box as they’d block the light!
To have year round colour choose a selection of evergreens i.e. ivy is good, and flowers.
Hanging baskets are usually made from lightweight wire frames, plastic or natural fibres.
Halfbaskets or troughs are suited to garden walls.
Make sure your bracket is secure and strong as when the basket is planted up with compost and plants it will be heavy, especially when wet.
Preparation & planting time
Place the bottom of a basket inside a bucket so that it doesn’t wobble about. (It has to be wider than the bucket so it doesn’t fall in). The side plants will hang down as you plant them.
Place a basket liner inside or you could use moss or leaves with a tray in the base to conserve water.
Half fill the basket with good quality potting compost.
Plant a mixture of foliage and flowering plants or even a mass of the same kind which will give impact. With wire baskets gently push small plants from the outside through the sides of the basket. Take care not to damage the roots. Small plug plants are excellent for this. Top up with the potting compost, add a central large plant, and then work outwards with smaller plants.
Water well and keep out of full sun for a week before hanging up.
In the autumn the baskets can be repotted for the spring with a mixture of bulbs, trailing ivy's, winter pansies and evergreens. Plant trailing ivy's in the sides of the basket, and add 5 or 6 winter pansies at the top. Position 5 or 6 crocus or dwarf iris between the pansies but below the compost. Hang in a sheltered sunny spot and keep well watered.
Watering
Pots and baskets dry out quickly, so ensure to water frequently-perhaps twice daily during summer. Avoid watering in the heat of the day.
Feeding
If you didn’t add fertiliser when planting, a few plant food tablets can be added between the plants. Simply push into soil to finger depth. Give a weekly liquid feed to help plants stay healthy and flower longer.
Pest Control
Control greenfly and blackfly with sprays. Snails often breed under ceramic pots. They can be controlled with a slug or snail remedy.
Deadheading
Snip off dead flowers regularly to promote new growth.
Time Saving Tips
Sow seeds & trailing nasturtiums directly into compost.
Add water retaining gel into the compost to help prevent compost from drying out or use special basket compost which already contains this gel.
When watering, place a pot beneath to catch excess water.
When planting deep containers such as chimney pots, don’t waste compost, use the left over compost of last years grow bags to fill bottom half or put large plastic pot in the top.
Containers in Winter
Create colour in winter with winter pansies, ornamental cabbages, primulas, ivy and small conifers. When temperatures drop put containers under cover. If you have no room insulate by surrounding pots with newspaper or bubblewrap. Keep clay or ceramic pots raised off the ground.
Winter baskets benefit from a dense liner to protect the roots from freezing. An old jumper cut up or a few sheets of newspaper are ideal.
What You Will Need
• Trowel
• Watering can
• Bucket
• Containers
• Baskets
• Potting compost
• Slow-release fertiliser
• Water-retaining gel
• Moss, leaves or liner
• Plants of your choice
