Hi there all, I am a keen hanging basket fan. I make my own baskets to hang the plants in. They are hanging every where around my car port. I live in sunny Queensland and we have severe water restrictions here at the moment, so only the hanging baskets get watered by hand. I have tried a lot of veggies and herbs in the baskets, I currently have rhubarb growing in one and lots of chillies in others. Chillies are great in hanging baskets, they don't worry if they dry out. I have come across a new type of basket liner, which I think is just fantastic. It's a bit like the old scotch-brite scourers. It still lets the water through, so I still need to line it with wet newspaper. But I have had some baskets potted now for over a year and they are still as fresh as the day I potted them, the old coconut fibre and even felt liners I have tried only lasted 18months at the most and then needed repotting. The word is these new ones will last 10 years, and if I want to repot I can just wash them out dry them and use them again. Fantastic. I would be interested to hear from other people growing especially veggies in hanging baskets. I was never too successful growing tomatoes in the baskets, nut I have seen other people do it.
G'day lyned from a fellow QLD'er!! Are you in Brissy? I like your idea about the scotch brite, they will last for ages. Will they hold mould or fungus or anything like that? The only things I got in hanging baskets are Nepenthes and Staghorn's. I also like the idea of tomatoes in hanging pots, so you don't have to stake them. Good one! Ed
Hi Lyned, I would love to know the name of those liners you mentioned. I have a huge hayrack planter and that would be most helpful. Newt
Hiya, I'm on the other side of winter, over in England, and my hanging baskets are full of panzies and heathers and cyclamen and hebes. They look lovely, especially when sparkly with frost in the mornings. We've tried the tomatoes ...... a nice bit of fun for my little boy. They need to be a tumbling variety, with cherry tomatoes so that they are not to heavy and snap their stalk. Nasturtiams looked lovely scampering everywhere, but were affected badly by "flea beetles" which are an "eat everything in thier path" kind of tiny pest over here. I work in a secondary school (11-18 year olds) and the kids will be planting stuff in any suitable container they choose next summer. We'll have cookery baskets and wire collendars and bird feeding cages etc etc. We'll try lettuces and some peas, along with soft fruit like strawberries and some small blueberry bushes. Along with that will be the good ol' geraniums, which stand up to all kinds of negect and water shortage, and the ever faithful fuscias, which are more delicate, but still forgiving of dryness. They might do very well in your climate. Have you tried carniverous plants like venus flytraps and the pitcher type ones? I wouldn't have much luck over here, as I think it could never be warm enough for them, but they might grow well with you? Perhapse they need more moisture? For Christmas pressies for my students I have bought some tiny venus fly traps and also some "touch me" plants (mimosa pudica) which curl up their leaves when you touch them, only to unfurl them again after a fue minutes. As they are all teenagers, I'm sure they'll love them for their wierdness!!. See ya, Sarah Balmer. England.
Thanks guys Ed, Queensland is great, and I live in Gympie, a couple of hours drive from the big smoke. It's very country, even though it is a city and growing at a rapid rate and in the news quite a lot because of the proposed dam. I have had my baskets with these liners up for over a year and haven't noticed any problems like that. I'm pleased you mentioned it though as I hadn't thought of that. Where about's are you in Qld, it's not that big a place is it? Newt, I have to admit, the new liners are actually not branded yet. It was a material not originally designed for the purpose of lining baskets, but I had been looking for something like it for years and literally one cold and stormy day I found it. I have been trialling it for over a year and also selling it to my customers at the local markets, mainly to get some feed back. It's all positive so far. The birds won't take it, and I found out why after talking to a bird breeder last Sunday at the market. It does come in a big roll so it could be cut to whatever size we want. I have set up a website to sell them. I'll insert my email at the bottom if you are still interested. Sarah I am really please to hear from you. Thankyou. I hope you don't mind but I actually want to write a book about growing things in hanging baskets to give away to people who are interested. What you are doing sounds really great, and I know what you mean about teenagers. My children are all adults now. Talking about tomatoes, yes when I tried they did seem to get very heavy on the branches, but one person I saw growing them had actually wrapped the branches around the basket, looked great. They had quite big tomatoes growing on the bush. But yesterday I was searching on the net and came across a couple of companies actually selling containers for specifically growing tomatoes upside down . Now that's something I hadn't thought of. There is a trend here at the moment to grow cacti and such in baskets in a flower ball type arrangement, so why not tomatoes. I haven't tried the carnivorous plants yet, as I tend to be a spasmodic gardener. I am away every weekend so plants really do have to be hardy. I have lemon scented geranium growing successfully in the baskets. That's really nice because as you walk past it will give off the very delicate perfume, and I have a couple of recipes using the scented geraniums. Rather nice. lynne@lynnewilson.com.au
Lynne, thank you so much for the offer, but I think the postage would make it prohibitive. I did look at your site and loved your baskets. Your art is lovely too. Newt
Hiya, Something we have in our herb garden at school are scented mints (you reminded me with your lemon geranium). They come in such a range of scents, with one smelling like pepermint, another like chocolate-mints and another like au de cologne. One even smells of pinapple , how I don't know!!! They would be fun in baskets, for the same reason your lemon geranium is where it is. We'll try them this summer. As for the cactus', we'll see how many we can get .... they're very expensive over here. The other old favourite of course with us Brits is daffodils and tulips in the srping baskets, aswell as snow drops, which are always so very pretty, although only there for a couple of weeks. We have huge garden shows over here, mainly in royal grounds (very posh) and they aways have a basket competition section. I don't know the web ID's but try searching on Hampton Court Palace Garden Show (UK) and The Chelsea Flower Show (UK) and see what they have to say for themselves. Also, Kew Gardens is a famous educational and research institute that might have a fun site. The Eden Project in Cornwall in the UK is wonderful, and they manage to have plants in all different circumstances, no water, lots of heat etc. Hope you find some good stuff for your book. In the summer I'll try to remember to send you some photos of our student baskets. See ya, Sarah. xxx
Newt Your probably right about postage to Maryland, the material is an Australian product. When I first came across it and tried it I was hooked and I thought I may as well get out and try to market it as product before the big multinationals get hold of it, but I'm not very good at marketing Im afraid. I did think of postage and freight before I started because when I was looking for a new type of liner material after using felt which was a disaster, I found a rubberised coconut fibre which would have been the alternative if I hadn't found the recycled plastic material, and the freight to get that to Gympie from Sydney was twice the price of the actual roll itself. Also when I have freighted some of the larger baskets to other areas it cost more than I was getting, but the customers paid it so I didn't mind. But back to the plastic liners, I thought I was on a good thing because they were thin and light and could roll up easily, easy to manage. Anyway, that's the way it goes. Thanks for the kind words about my art, the site is in the process of being updated, it really needs it. Sarah Yes, I also had forgotten about the fragant mints, eau de cologne is one of my favorites, I haven't heard of the chocolate scented one, or the pineapple, are they new ones? Sounds like you have great fun at your school, and yes thank you I would love some photos for my book. I did think about running a hanging basket competition on the website also. Just takes a bit of organising, and I thought all we would need is photos and have a group judging. There is a Victorian group here in Australia that run a competition every year, that only condition is you have to use their baskets, I suppose that's fair enough. I'm still pondering this though. Thanks for chatting and have fun. Lyned