A hanging basket is a beautiful touch to accent any home and garden. With a variety of plant combinations available at your local Grange Co-op, you can arrange an eye-catching basket in just a couple minutes. Reference the video included to see just how easy it is to arrange your own basket or read more in the details below.

Choose the type of plants you prefer for the space the basket will be hung. It’s important to choose plants that are collectively tolerant to either heat, shade, or both, depending on your choice location. While you want a variety of plant types in your basket, it’s important to make sure all are cohesive and will thrive together in the environment they are placed.

When choosing your plants, note the full-grown size and shape on their plant tag. Depending on the type of look you prefer, a combination of clumping plants with trailing plants can create a mixture of color and texture that will create an eye-catching basket well into the growing season. It’s important to recognize a common mistake when creating hanging baskets: over planting your basket. Referencing our video, you’ll see Kraig is using a 14” basket and planting 3 Calibrachoa starts in it. Each plant will grow very large and you want to avoid overcrowding for the health and overall appearance of your basket.

Next, if your space allows it, the larger the basket, the more volume of water your plants will hold. Because a larger basket holds more soil, it will retain more water, meaning the less frequently you’ll need to water your plants. In the heat of summer, small baskets can not only require watering daily, but possibly multiple times a day. Save yourself this hassle by investing in a slightly larger basket. If your basket does not come with a liner, or needs replaced, we have coco liners available in a variety of sizes.
Fill the basket with a light, heaping mound of dirt. We recommend G&B Organics Blue Ribbon Blend as the ideal container mix needed for this project. This soil is ready to use, requiring no mixing and made with premium ingredients, including beneficial mycorrhizae and coir.

Next, gently remove your plants from their plastic liners. If there is an abundance of white roots, circling around the soil – bound by the container they were in – gently pull or slightly tear them free. Dig a hole large enough for your plant. Next, you’ll want to notice how you place the plant in the soil. In order to make a basket that is well blended, you should recognize the longer legs of your plant and place those pointed to the inside of the basket. This will force those legs to cross over and blend, creating a basket that is a uniformed mix of colors instead of striped and segmented.

Once each of your plants are in the basket, begin packing down the soil with your hands, adding additional soil as needed. Follow up with a dose of liquid fertilizer and a heavy watering, then in couple weeks your basket will be full and beautiful!

Thank you to our GrangeGardening Expert, Kraig, for his educational video. For more tips and recommendations, visit our GrangeKnows page online or in store and happy planting!