Hanging Garden

This design works well as a garden plan or combined with other plans. Raising plants eliminates the bending and crawling needed to tend planting beds, and can fit more plants into a small space.

Plant Choice

The types of plants you choose will depend on how you want to display them. Do you want to fill your patio with hanging baskets, are you looking for plants to trail over a garden wall, or are you just creating a few window boxes?

To get some ideas for basket-worthy upright and trailing flowers, foliage, and vegetables and climbing vines for walls and other structures visit BLI's Trailing Plants and Climbing vines. Remember to pick up a few upright plants in addition of the trailing and climbing ones. Filling the center of a hanging basket with upright plants and placing trailing plants at the edge will give the design the fullest look. When buying plants, choose seedlings in 2-1/2-inch cell-packs, as these will be the easiest to work with.

Types of plant hangers

Containers
Pots, wire or plastic baskets, and window boxes are all suitable containers for hanging plants. Plastic is inexpensive, easy to work with and is slower to dry out than wood. Window boxes come in plastic and wood as well as hayracks (long narrow wire baskets). Wire baskets allow more choices in size and planting arrangements. With these a liner is used to hold the soil in. Traditionally, wire mesh baskets are lined with sphagnum moss and filled with potting soil, but there are also drop-in liners in both plastic-lined polyester (which cuts down on moisture loss) and such natural materials as cocoa fiber. You can make one with from burlap, dried sphagnum moss, or coir (coconut fiber). Wire baskets should be 12 inches or more in diameter to allow enough growing room. For a planned, finished look, choose a box that will extend the full width of the window.

Hangers and supports
Like the containers themselves, options for hanging baskets and pots run from plain and functional to artwork in their own right. The simplest option is stainless steel hooks that can be screwed into a ceiling or wooden wall or S-hooks than can be hooked over a fence or other upright surface. Also available are wall brackets that extend horizontally from the wall. These may be simple metal, but many come with a flat statue on top. For pots, there are also wall brackets with metal a rings to slip to pot into, so you won't need a chain or rope to hang the pot from. Hanging containers closer to eye-level will not only make them easier to water, but easier to see, as well. When choose a container and support keep in mind that containers can gain two or three pounds after watering.

Planting the basket

Soil
Because plant roots are stuck with whatever's in the container, soil must be high-quality. A lightweight potting mix or "soil-less" planting mix will provide good drainage, aeration, and water-holding capacity that ordinary garden soil usually can't supply. Containers need drainage holes, but there's no need to add pebbles at the bottom as they won't necessarily improve drainage. Most potting soils are peat-based and can be difficult to re-wet if they dry out, but you can help it hold water longer by adding loam- or humus-based potting mix.

Arranging the plants
Naturally, plants in a container have to be placed much closer than they would be in a planting bed. Trailing plants should be placed at the edges of the container and bushy or upright plants can go in the center or back, depending on how the basket will be seen (from all angles or only from the front). When you choose your upright plants, look for ones that won't grow so tall that they'll be blocked by or get tangled in the basket's chain.

Making a moss-lined hanging basket
Use vinyl or rubber tubing slit lengthwise and fit onto the rim of the basket to protect stems of hanging plants. Soak green sphagnum moss overnight. Wring it out to damp and pack it around the inside of the basket, making a lining 1 inch thick, extending 1 inch above the basket rim. Thoroughly soak the plants by submerging the pots in water until all air bubbles disappear. This makes them more pliable for planting and helps them get established more quickly.From the bottom up, work holes through the moss every 2 to 6 inches (depending on the size the plant will grow to).Wrap root balls in small plastic bags to make insertion easier from outside the basket. From inside, pull root balls through so they rest on top of the soil. Remove the bag and anchor the root ball with a handful of soil. Gently push a plant through a hole. When the first row is complete, add soil to cover the roots and firm the soil. Continue this way, working up along the basket.

Care

Container plants dry out quickly, so in hot weather they'll need daily or even twice-daily watering. If the pot dries out completely, immersing it in water will rewet the soil. If your pots and baskets are hung a little higher than you can easily reach, try using a watering wand to extend your reach and produce a gentle shower. Keep in mind, though, that watering washes away nutrients and container plants will usually need to be fertilized with liquid fertilizers or time-release fertilizers every two weeks throughout the growing season. If you find your plants looking sad towards the end of summer, a little pruning can often revive them.

Unique hanging garden ideas

Create a rainbow plan with reds and yellows at the top, decending to purples and blues.