HANGING BASKETS AND WINDOW BOXES- BITS AND BOBS 2016

As we've had a two month drought and excessive hot weather our hanging baskets are virtually finished.

We've been away a couple of times during that period and although we have friends coming in every day to do the watering it hasn't been enough for the baskets . They have needed three waterings a day on the hottest days.

These are the only two surviving baskets and they both have a lot of dead plants in the. We can't remove the dead plants as the baskets are solid with roots.

The bacopa (white flowers) has started to do well and is recovering in this one


This one doesn't look quite so bad from as distance

 

Thanks @roders, Mrs Shiney had trimmed the nepeta back by about 30% It always does that well in our baskets. Don't know why

 

I don't know about council baskets but I don't think they cram them as full as we do. As ours are crammed so full they don't take watering very well. The mass of solid roots doesn't allow too much water to soak in so they need watering three times a day in hot weather - which we've certainly had this summer.

We used to plant less densely and also sink a plastic cup, with holes in the bottom and sides, into the soil of the basket. This allowed us to just fill the cup and it was very successful. We don't do that now because we want the baskets crammed with plants to look good for Open Day each year at the end of May.