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Guest Guru- Kimba, blogger of A Soft Place to Land

How to Plant Hanging Baskets: A Tutorial

It happens every year. Early summer comes around and the urge to start planting and growing becomes irresistible. There’s something so fulfilling about playing in the dirt and helping to grow something beautiful.

Hanging baskets for your porch, patio or deck can be stunning with just a little bit of time and effort.

Here’s what you need:

• Metal hanging baskets with coconut fiber liners – I’ve had my baskets for at least 7 years and I just replace the liners every couple of years.
• Potting soil – This can be found at any gardening or home improvement store. Potting soil is much lighter than regular soil and is made for use in containers.
• Flowers – Evaluate where they’ll be hanging. Does it get full sun, part sun or shade? Choose plants that work in that setting. You can start with either premade baskets or individual plants.

First, put a layer of the potting soil in the bottom of the basket with the liner. Just eyeball it. You want enough soil in the bottom so that the top of the root ball of your flower is just a little below the edge of your liner.

Next, take your flowers out of their plastic container and place them the new baskets. If you’re using smaller individual plants, you want to leave enough room for the plants to double in size.

Then fill in around the plants with more potting soil but don’t bury any part of the plant’s stem with the new soil.

That’s it! Give them a good watering and hang them up!

Water regularly and fertilize every couple of weeks and they’ll be full and beautiful in no time.

About Kimba:

Kimba writes at A Soft Place to Land (www.asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com) where she regular shares inspiration and practical ideas for creating a sanctuary at home. On any given day, she writes about family, frugal home decorating and her deep love for spray paint.