Gardening Advice & Tips for Irish Gardeners

As we approach midsummer and height of the gardening season, it may be time to pay particular attention to your hanging basket and window boxes. I think the biggest concern surrounding container gardening is water and the lack of it, and so a regular watering schedule should is needed to really get the best out of them.

Hanging baskets will begin to dry out from the moment you position them on their supporting bracket. Like clothes hanging out to dry, hanging baskets are at the mercy of the wind. Also, they are often positioned directly under the overhang of a building, meaning rain water cannot reach their soil. And lastly the limited pot size means a lack of compost and moisture available to plant roots. All these factors add up to water stress for the plants and the need to water daily.

There are a number of ways in which retaining moisture in hanging basket can be achieved. The obvious and essential one is of course; the hanging basket liners. Liners come in many forms, often made from recycled materials including coconut fibre, jute moss, angel moss, wool, and sometimes rubber or plastic. The liners sit inside the wire frame of baskets to hold both compost and water in place.

When creating your hanging basket another idea would be to line the base of each basket with a piece of plastic bag. For a 12inch hanging basket cut a 6 inch x 6 inch piece of plastic and place in the bottom of the basket. This will stop water from flowing through your basket as you are watering it and allow that water be soaked up into the compost.

There is however a purpose built gadget on the market that does this very job and more, it is the Water Retaining Mat, and again is placed in the bottom of your basket , but this mat will actually soak up and hold additional water keeping your plant moist for longer periods.

When preparing your compost mix for your hanging baskets or window box there a wide range of option available. Peat is a commonly used growing medium, however peat composts dry out too quickly and its use has been discouraged recently, due to environmental reasons. Alternatives to peat composts include coir, bark, wood fibre based composts and green composts, all these are suitable for hanging baskets. There is water retaining products that will help further retain your soils moisture, one such product is the water retaining gels which can hold up to 40 times its weight in water. Simply add a small handful (35gms) to each basket and mix through the soil.

When i prepare my hanging baskets, I use a compost mix of 3 parts peat free multipurpose compost, 1 part perlite, 35gms of water retaining gels, a small spoon of superphosphate and mix all together. I first line each basket with a jute moss liner, add a small amount of my compost mix then I add the water retaining mat and then another layer of soil. After this i soak my plant in water and then begin planting. Finally i will top each basket off with compost, water well and add of layer of bark or perlite as mulch to the surface of the basket, again to retain moisture.

For best results prepare your window box and baskets in mid to late spring and store them in a warm, bright green house until the weather is suitability warm for hanging outdoors. Again I water my baskets at least twice a week, but in dry and windy weather I would check on them every day. So far this summer they’ve really put on some great growth and really brighten up the place