When Black Creek Greenhouses in East Earl, PA first opened for the season I purchased four inexpensive hanging baskets to fill and create with. I was going to use one for a planting demonstration I was hosting. Then came coronavirus and the event was postponed. Hopefully it will be able to be held later this spring and I will create another pot or planter.

Anyway BloomBox delivers and I chose my plants for these four baskets:

✔️ Red Geraniums

✔️ English Thyme

✔️ Creeping Rosemary

✔️ Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’

It’s not so hard to plant pots, planters, and hanging baskets. Almost anything you can think of. I like to mix annuals, perennials, and herbs in hanging baskets. In big pots and planters I like to mix the same and even hostas, perennials, and I have even planted roses, Japanese maples, and shrubs in pots.

When you choose your plants, also choose decent potting soil. I like to mix my soil with coir which is derived from coconut husks. I buy it in “bricks” and soak it in water. It’s fluffy and helps keep the soil fluffy and has great water retention. Coir is much better than peat.

I put about 2/3 of my soil in my pots. If I am planting a pot versus a hanging basket, I also include pot shards or pebbles to help with drainage.

After I add the soil I lay my plants out in their pots. That way I can work on the arrangement before I do the final planting.

From this point it’s pretty simple. I add my plants one by one. I build up the soil around the plants until everything is set. Today after I planted my baskets, I added the hangers, and hung them up. I watered the plants in with a mixture of water and seaweed extract.

That is pretty much it! But I encourage people to get creative with their pots, hanging baskets, and planters. I think my hanging baskets turned out nicely. I didn’t pack the baskets too full of plants, I want the plants to have room to fill in.

Happy gardening!