Planting a hanging basket

Hello and thanks for visiting our blog. This week we've put together some basic tips, a guide for complete beginners on how to plant up a hanging basket. A handy design tip is to plant in odd numbers, we have chosen to plant five trailing plants in order for this basket to be over flowing with pretty flowers.

I have chosen a pelargonium in pink, to go in the centre as this will give some height; petunias in purple, cerise and white; and a surfinia in pale pink. Be sure to choose varieties of plants that complement each other in colour.

In this hanging basket, I have used a coconut fibre lining to give a lovely natural look. Some baskets are pre-lined with plastic, this is fine if you can't see it, you may have to make a few small holes in it for drainage.

Next add some compost, you can use John Innes No. 2 or a general compost is fine. Adding slow release plant food and water retaining crystals is recommended for a hanging basket, to help keep the compost moist and nutritious. 

Here I've put the tallest plant in the middle, this is fine or you could place it at the back of your arrangement. In this case the pelargonium is a trailing plant too, but still provides the bit of height required for this display.

The remaining four plants were placed around the centre. The pale colours were paired up with the more vibrant colours so that the display will look eye catching all round once everything is in flower. Be sure to loosen the roots slightly before planting. Add more compost around all the plants and pat down.

Give the basket a generous watering and hang it up! It's as simple as that. As far as caring for it goes, make sure you water it daily to avoid drying out. If you forget, and the compost does dry out just take the basket down and soak it in a bucket of water for a little while.

This basket will look great in a few weeks time, i'll be sure to post an updated picture for you to see the result.

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Thanks very much for reading, I hope to see you soon.

Summer has just begun...

The northern hemisphere celebrated the longest day of the year this week on 21^st June, here in the UK. We’ve all seen the pictures of the celebrations at Stonehenge! And yes, technically it’s true that from now on, our day light hours will be getting shorter. I have heard some people making negative comments about this and looking on the grim side. So I just want to say, stay positive peeps! Summer has only just begun.

This week has been filled with more fencing, garden maintenance and quotes to do! The fence job that Richard did this week included cutting down a number of conifers at the back of the garden, disposing of all the greens waste, and replacing them with a six foot high feather edge fence and kickboard. Our customers were lovely people and were very happy with the job.  Maintenance was thirsty work on Wednesday, since we had a really hot day that probably wasn’t THAT hot, we’re just not used to it! And the rest of the week was business as usual.

One thing that was noted this week, was there seem to be a few more bees about the place, which is great news. So, if you don’t have many flowers in your garden, maybe you could consider doing some planting this weekend? You don’t need to have huge borders full of plants and flowers, although that would be nice. Even just a few pots here and there, after all the bees need pollen and nectar to survive and at the same time you can brighten up your home.

Here are some planting tips:

Always make sure your pot has holes in the bottom, if it hasn’t, make some to avoid water-logging

Place a layer of stones in the bottom of the pot to help with drainage

Choose a suitable compost for your plant, often a multi-purpose compost will do

Now, loosen the roots of your plant, place it in your pot and fill with compost

Water well and enjoy

Of course if you do want that border full of beautiful flowers, you could always call us! Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for reading.

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