Hanging baskets don’t take up much room or require a lot of care. Stuffed full of herbs and veggies, they can offer beauty and fragrance as well as the ingredients for salads and stir-fries. Your container can be plastic or a moss basket, but the minimum size should be 12 by 10 in.. Measure out enough potting soil to fill the container and mix in (1/2 cup) of organic fertilizer and 3 tsp. E.B. Stone Sure Start. Gently arrange your plants, water well, and enjoy watching your garden grow and ripen.
Vegetables and herbs require sunlight and warmth to produce well, so pick an area with full afternoon sun. As with any container, the soil will dry out quickly: be sure to water regularly, sometimes even twice daily. Vegetables are heavy feeders, so supplement the organic fertilizer you mixed into the soil at planting time with an application of liquid kelp or fish fertilizer every 10 days. A hanging basket garden is also great for those who are tired of battling slugs. Being up and off the ground makes them somewhat slug resistant.
Italian Basket
Center a ‘Juliet’ tomato in your hanging basket and surround with Italian flat parsley, lettuce, eggplant, cucumber and basil.
Herb Basket
Plant your choice of chives in the center and surround with curly parsley, trailing rosemary, silver thyme, sweet basil, cilantro, purple sage, and poke in five nasturtium seeds.
Asian Vegetable Basket
Surround a ‘Tumbler’ tomato with ‘Siam Queen’ basil, mizuna, gai lan, ‘Snow Wind’ snow peas, ‘Lemon’ cucumber, cilantro and ‘Brunia’ lettuce.
Mexican Basket
Use a ‘Sweet Million’ tomato as your centerpiece in this one and surround with a ‘Teddy Bear’ sunflower, cilantro, ‘Early Jalapeno’ pepper, ‘Salad Bowl’ lettuce, chives, ‘Canary Yellow’ Swiss chard and a ‘Salad Bush’ cucumber.
Salad Bowl Basket
Plant a ‘Red Pear’ tomato in the center and surround with chives, ‘Red Sails’ lettuce, ‘Salad Bowl’ lettuce, ‘Lemon’ cucumber, curly parsley and two pansies.
From Gardenwise, a gardening magazine based in Canada.