Cormaic's Garden - Dangly Baskets

Garden Layout - Dangly Baskets
I prefer to use a 'quality' peat-free compost for all my dangly baskets and windy boxes, as this is all that the dozen or so plants will have to support them for the next 20-odd weeks. A good crumbly texture that doesn't crust over too easily when sun-baked is ideal, as this helps water penetration and decreases run-off. Mixing a handful of grit or perlite to the top half-inch of the compost once the plants are in will also promote water absorption, and reduce 'crusting'.
For the last 3 or 4 years, I've used swell-gel in all my baskets and boxes, as I do find that it keeps the plants going on the driest, hottest days, which previously could be a problem with the smaller baskets and boxes. I usually add by the handful, but a good guide is to use 3 heaped tea-spoonfuls for a 12" basket, with an extra heaped tsp for each 2" extra diameter. As an example, a 16" basket would take 3 + 2 tsps of the swell-gel mixed in with the compost. Bear in mind that this stuff swells to about 20 times its original size when fully saturated with water, and if you seriously overdo it, there will not be room within the contained compost for the gel to swell, if you see what I mean.	Basket planted with begonias, lysimachia, oxalis and surfinias
I don't bother with the slow-release fertilisers, as I've never noticed an appreciable difference between the weekly-fed baskets and those using the slow-release pellets. I do add a small handful of either Growmore or pelleted chickenshitten to the compost before filling the baskets, and then feed weekly from about 4 weeks later until the end of the season using a general fertiliser, such as MiracleGro or Phostrogen, whichever is cheapest at the time. :~)
	This bird cage belonged to one of Mrs Taz's doomed pets, a canary by the name of Gandalf who met his end by flying into a chip pan full of oil. It could have been worse, the oil could have been hot! Anyway, I've cut chunks of the grille away, filled the base-pan with my dangly basket mix, and planted it up every year. This is 1999's effort - the pink surfinias dominate, but, if you look carefully, you can pick out the blue cascade lobelia on the left hand side, the orange/yellow bi-colour begonia in the centre and the oxalis on the right. There's also a fuchsia in there, but it didn't do too well and can't be seen on the photo.
This free-standing sconce was a birthday present from my parents in 1997. A steel bar, driven 450mm into the ground, carries a 350mm diameter circular basket about 1.5m above ground. I only use it during the summer, putting it into storage over the winter when it is more vulnerable to high winds and it's exposed position makes any plants left in it susceptible to frost damage.
The above photo shows it planted with Isotoma/Laurentia, a lovely basket plant, native to Australia, with lilac star-like flowers erupting from dark green, deeply cut foliage. It starts to flower in June, once it gets a good bit of hot sun, and continues through until the end of September. It's best treated as a half-hardy annual; I propagate next years plants from cuttings taken in July and overwintered on a frost free windowsill in the house. It makes a welcome change from the more traditional lobelia cascade, and as the added bonus of being deliciously scented.
	For the summer of 1999, Mrs Taz decreed that she wanted the dangly baskets on the front of the house to match the colour of her home town's rugby league team, and so, in tribute to the once might Leigh RL club, this red and white basket was dedicated. Plants used include a pink fimbriata begonia, a red trailing begonia, nasturtiums 'Volcano', fuchsia 'Marinka', pelargonium 'Mexicana, white cascade lobelia amd sweet alyssum. She was pleased enough. :~)
I make up separate baskets for the winter, using a mixture of plants to span the cold montrhs of November until April. This picture shows the baskets for the winter of 98-99, prepared during late September and early October, and then left to 'settle-in', prior to being dangled after the first frosts. Favourite plants to use in winter baskets include cyclamen, cineraria, box, primroses, winter cabbages, euonymus, pansies, ivies and, of course, bulbs, especially hyacinths, and iris reticulata.

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