Home » Plants & Animals » Gardening in B.C. » Economical Baskets

Economical Baskets

© Susan Ward

There's no avoiding them; every grocery store and garden centre is lined with baskets of flowers this time of year. Sometimes you can hardly move without banging your head.But there's nothing quite like a flower basket for brightening up the entryway to your home or adding a splash of colour to a "dull" area of your yard. My back yard is enclosed by a weathered cedar fence; hanging a flower basket along each fence section changes the whole look of the back yard, from dreary to dazzling!

Hanging baskets also make lovely gifts for the 'plant-inclined'; they're just as beautiful and last so much longer than cut flowers. We gave my mother-in-law a pair of them for Mother's Day and lots of other people did too, judging from the number of hanging baskets that have suddenly appeared in people's front yards around town.

But while I love the look of hanging baskets, I hate their price. It's really difficult to find a decent looking one for less than $20 and generally, the better-looking and bigger a basket is, the more it costs. At retail prices, I wouldn't even be able to deck out one side of my yard. But fortunately, creating your own hanging baskets isn't hard, and will definitely save you considerable cash.

The first thing you have to do is decide how many baskets you're going to make and gather the materials. I bought my plastic hanging baskets at a discount department store; you can also find moss or wooden baskets if you want them. (Hopefully you'll only have to buy baskets once, as you'll be able to reuse them in future years. This is why I use plastic rather than moss or wood; they bear up best in this climate and are easiest to clean and store.)

The number and size of baskets you've selected will determine how much soil you'll need. You should use planter box or hanging basket mix, even though it's more expensive, as it has special qualities that make it best suited for growing annuals in hanging baskets, such as being lighter and having more water retention than topsoil. You should never use soil from your garden; there's too much risk of disease and weeds.

Once you have your baskets and soil mix, you're ready to pick your plants. I basically decide whether the basket is going to be in shade or sun when it's hung and pick a colour scheme. (This year's is red, white and blue, accented with purple.) Some people like baskets of a single type of plant, such as petunias, and it's hard to beat a basket of fuschias in bloom for beautifying a shady spot, but I usually create mixed baskets.

The copyright of the article Economical Baskets in Gardening in B.C. is owned by . Permission to republish Economical Baskets in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.