What should i use to line a hanging basket

A piece of old compost bag perhaps?

 

I agree, I always use a old plastic bag with holes made for drainage. It won't be seen anyway.

 

I don't use them but I do have hay rack baskets. I don't like seeing the shiny plastic, so I use a layer of roofing felt [when I have it] or pond underlay as the outer layer, and then have the plastic inside that. It gives a better appearance.
If it's just being used as a bog standard container that won't be seen, I don't bother though.
It largely depends on what's going in it, but you can also buy that coir/coconut stuff , ready made for them too. I've never used it, and I don't know if that's sufficient for retaining moisture or if you'd need the plastic as well.

 

I use coir in a hay basket and it does retain moisture but needs watering often in dry weather. TBH, I would say it is more that it retains the compost and the compost retains moisture. Water retaining crystals may be a good idea but I have never tried them.
I have never thought of lining the coir with plastic - I will probably try that next year.

 

You'd need plastic as well, something like old compost bags, with a few holes poked or snipped in them. I use the coir liners for wire baskets because I like the look, but they usually only last a few years because the birds steal bits out of them, I assume for nest-building. When they get too threadbare, I tear them up and put them in the compost.

I also have some liners that I knitted in spring 2020 when the garden centres etc were all shut. They're a bit "weathered" now but are holding up remarkably well. I use plastic inside those too.

For those wicker ones I'd just use plastic, black side out in case you can see it a bit through the wicker.

 

May years ago when Alan T was presenting GW he did a trial of basket liners and found that an old woolly jumper was the best liner.

I remember on a visit to Keukenhof bulb gardens years ago that they lined their baskets with a water retentive liner but used a piece of African wax print fabric between it and the basket to prettify them.

 

Yes- you could really use almost anything as a liner, and it's a good way to recycle old clothes because charity shops won't take manky, damaged stuff, so it ends up in landfill.
If you had something with a nice pattern, or colour combo to match the planting, you could use one piece of old clothing each side of the plastic, with the most suitable bit on the outside.
The other thing that's useful for hanging baskets, or anything similar, is to make the holes slightly higher up, rather than having lots of holes in the base. It means you have a small reservoir of water in the base for the plants to soak up.

I wondered about that @JennyJB - re the plastic needed as well. I couldn't see that coir stuff being water retentive enough on it's own. I know what you mean about the birds taking it - I have a decimated back door mat this year - the magpies had been at it!

 

@fairygirl, I have used coir without plastic and never really had any problems as long as I keep it watered. TBH I had never thought of putting plastic inside it, but I will try to remember next year.

 

I don't do baskets here as it gets too hot, even in shade, but when I did them at our last house I always put a square of plastic from an old compost bag in the bottom to help retain moisture. Even in Belgium the ones on the south side needed 2 waterings on hot days.

 

In the past I've used surplus moss from around the insectiverous plants to line my two hanging baskets.

 

I'd never used it @katecat58 , so I really didn't know how good it was for water retention. As I said, I don't do hanging baskets, and the racks I use are usually filled with soil rather than just compost, because even though we get regular enough rain here through summer, baskets and containers of any kind can dry out easily once there's a lot of foliage blocking that. You could always experiment next year and see if it makes a difference - same plants, same site but one with a bit of extra lining and one without.

I've grown sweet peas in those hayrack ones though, on the fence to let them hang down, and it works well. They need a lot of water, but if I was growing something that didn't need so much, I'd still use some plastic lining inside, just to be sure of them getting enough moisture, and I wouldn't then need to water so often. I've also had nasturtiums in them and they work well too, and don't need as much moisture anyway.
I feel that's something we need to think of nowadays, and many places are having such long dry periods, so saving water wherever possible has to be a good thing

 

@fairygirl, I will definitely try lining it with plastic next year. Just never occurred to me to do that. I can't do the experiment as I only have one hay rack, which was there when we moved in. It is the only container that has shown any signs of drying out this year!

 

That's a pity that you only have one to experiment with @katecat58 , but it's still worth experimenting anyway.
We pay a set rate for our water here, as opposed to being metered, so people tend to be quite careless with the amount they use, but I still try to be economical, even though it's a very rare event for us to be short of rainfall, and therefore we don't have the problems many areas have. There's definitely changes though, so we need to be aware. I'm now in the habit of saving the water while it's warming up for my shower, and it easily fills a watering can. Every small change can make a difference. It's why I'd like us to be on a meter up here, especially when I see people watering grass - even when it's raining. It might make people think a bit more every time they turn on the tap.