Cheapskate Rural Gardener: Making Hanging Flower Baskets

I love spring flowers, the more the better. A great way to get a quick and colorful accent is to hang flower baskets. You can buy them, premade, at local garden centers and home improvement stores but you can save a few bucks and have a bit more control if you do it yourself. 

You'll just need baskets to hang them in, potting mix, transplant solution, fertilizer spikes, and the plants...all readily available at your local garden center or even online in some instances.

I use iron hanging baskets with a coconut husk liner. I put in enough potting mix on the bottom so that it will push the smaller plants up to the side of the rim.

I'm getting snapdragons, pansies, and violets in 2 inch mini pots. I arrange then on top of the potting mix, leaning against the side so that the flowers can rise above the basket rim.

Next, cover up the roots and in-between areas with potting mix. I'm leaving a hole in the middle large enough to fit in the upright snapdragons that I bought in 6" pots.

This next step is just an experiment for me this year, I got some seeds for some plants with hanging flowers, amaranth, to see if it will grow in and extend the time for blooms so I don't have to repot the baskets so soon (usually, I have to replant my hanging baskets one time during each season to keep them going). I'm sprinkling them all around the top soil of each basket. You don't have to do this but it's just something I want to try.

Fill in the remaining spaces with your soil and tamp down. Mix up some transplant solution to stop transplant shock and water in the basket thoroughly.

Since the baskets will be hanging high over my head, I insert three fertilizer stakes in each basket. These release fertilizer slowly through the season when watered so I don't have to climb a ladder to feed the plants.

Hang them up where you want them, I put them on the front of our house over the porch. Water thoroughly every other day...every day when it is very hot. This is another thing I don't want to break out a ladder to do so I set it up on a automatic micro-sprinkler on my drip system, which I show you how to set up on our post The Poor Man's Sprinkler System.

Now, the only thing left is to relax and enjoy your new flowers.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2021 - All Rights Reserved