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Perforated Basket
How to Make a No-work Hanging Basket
A hanging basket for flowers or vegetables can be expensive if you buy it but you can so easily create a delightful basket at home free for a natural garden, using organic principles and recycled materials. Better still, follow this plan and you won't need to water it!
Less watering means less labor. And you can be sure that your valuable transplants won't perish in warm weather. You don't need to buy water-absorbent granules. Here's a way to construct a hanging eco-basket free of charge and in moments.
If you can't obtain a traditional woven basket, find any recyclable container that can be camouflaged in decorative cloth. If necessary, keep in the compost by lining the basket with nylon stockings. They last for ever. Gardeners have also used moss from a lawn or large leaves like water dock. Even old tea bags.
Make your basket water itself
Here's a tip! Drop in a water reservoir. Take a little sturdy plastic shopping bag, the sort that won't degrade. Pack it with some durable water absorbent substance. Perlite and vermiculite are perfect. True, they're costly but you can clean them at season's end with hot water and use them indefinitely.
Another absorbent substance is barbecue charcoal. It neutralises acidity in the pot. After use, it can be washed, dried and burnt on your barbie!
Drop that plastic water pot in the hanging basket, but leave ample room at the top, sides and base for compost. Fill the bag with water. Make sure there's a deep layer of compost on top.
Drop in your plants above the water reservoir so that, as they grow, they can reach their roots into the watering pot. Water the compost well.
You can now go on vacation for a fortnight. Your plants will do fine.
Grow plants out of the base and sides too
It's very easy to customise that basket - and irrigation device - to grow plants out of the sides and base of the basket too. To do that, you need a stiffer container than a plastic bag.
Halve a plastic milk or soft drinks bottle to make a one pint pot. Add charcoal again or any sterile absorbent substance that's very light. One idea is loft insulation matting. Now poke openings in the sides and base of the basket to receive your transplants.
How do you water those transplants? This is a great idea: lead a few capillary ribbons out of the water pot before you surround it with compost.
Two more gardening tips: Don't buy capillary ribbons or matting! Just use bootlaces or bits of sash cord, or cut lengths from a nylon sock or stocking and twist them. They'll convey water. Avoid a fibre like cotton that will rot.
Twirl those strips around the roots of the plants. Top up the inner pot with water and soak the whole basket as well. Every plant should then get enough water over the season. Except in the hottest season, the eco-basket should need watering only every week.
How can you find a free hanging basket?
You can grow a vast amount of flowers - and salads - in a big hanging eco-basket. A good tip is to get a used ten pint plastic keg. Restaurants and decorators can offer you plenty of these, free.
Make sure they once held food stuffs or something equally harmless - but beware of toxins! Perforate every side copiously.
Maybe the keg has a handle already but you can easily suspend them using cord or wire. Disguise the keg using a strip of attractive rug or other decorative fabric.
One more idea for a no-cost basket is those big nylon net bags typically used to sell vegetables or fruit. Even a fisherman's net or a lobster creel can be cut into use, and it will look highly attractive too.
Needless to say, you don't have to grow just flowers in an eco-hanging basket. Why not cherry tomatoes? You can even grow them upside down!
Upside down tomatoes? It's a very clever idea because you have two growing areas - above and below. Poke your tomato seedling into the base of the basket and wedge it securely so it can't drop out under the weight of fruit. Then plant salad crops on top of the basket and in its sides.
Design your hanging baskets this way and you'll rarely have to water them. Of course, that's a boon if you've hung those baskets high overhead. If you spot gardeners purchasing baskets, murmur in their ears 'plastic milk bottles and old nylon socks'. Sure, they'll decide you're crazy, but who's crazy - really?
About the Author
Dr John Yeoman PhD is founder of the information
network for
natural gardening ideas
, the Gardening Guild.
You'll find a wealth of
ingenious plans to get more
fun, food and profit out of your garden with
less expense and labor in his
big book Lazy Secrets for Natural Gardening
Success. Acquire it for free at:
http://www.gardeningguild.org/lazy
TOLHURST 48 IN. X 24 IN. PERFORATED BASKET CENTRIFUGE