Hanging Baskets - A Different Take

I saw this somewhere - probably on Hometalk or perhaps Pinterest and decided to do my own baskets on posts. We don't have fencing on the border of our garden with our neighbours and we don't particularly want it (part of the half acre is fully fenced for our dog but not all of it) but these posts help to define the boundary visually while wildlife can still come and go between the two gardens. As we have had a wallaby on the back yard some time ago and also evidence of wombats, this was important to us.
Here is how we did it.
There are five posts in all. An odd number always looks better than an even number. First of all we used a post digger (looks like two long handled post digging shovels in the form of a scissor arrangement or pincer arrangement) to dig out the holes for the posts. We dug to a depth of about 40 or 50cms. As the holes are not much bigger than the circumference of the posts we did not bother to concrete the posts in, we just packed the dirt back in around the posts. After all, they are not supporting the weight of a fence or a structure, just these baskets. Then off to the hardware store and bought 3 x 3metre round fence posts in H4 treated pine. As they were 3m long, I had the store cut them in half. We have a random height effect (which is what we were aiming for) due to the undulating land and the post holes being dug to slightly different depths). So anyhow, I now had 6 x 1.5 metre long posts. I painted them up with two coats of timber stain to get the dark colour you see here. I only need five so I will be using the other post for something else. Then set them in the ground by packing the soil back in. Used a spirit level to ensure the posts were straight. Then using U shaped staples (looks like U shaped double pointed ended nails) I attached the hanging baskets to the posts. 4 x staples to each basket. Then in went a plastic bag liner over the coco fibre liner with some holes cut in for drainage.. This was to prevent the baskets from drying out too quickly. I cut holes in the coco liner at various intervals around the outside of the baskets and poked some seedlings - Petunia, Begonia, Lobelia and Snap Dragons around the edges of the basket - I want the baskets to fill out and look like round balls of flowers when they grow, rather than just plant through the top of the baskets. Covered the roots balls with good quality potting mix and added water saving crystals around the root zones of the plants. Then put bigger plants in the top. Voila! This is the look I was going for and hoping it will fill in and ball up more so that no gaps can be seen around the edges. Also added some Impatiens, Coleus and I think they are a type of Gazania and some other plants I cannot even recall the names of. I have heard that you can put disposable diapers in the bottoms of hanging baskets to retain water and imagine this would work very well to stop the baskets from drying out too quickly as the diapers have water saving or absorbing crystals in them too.



















In the foreground, a 1950's bench I made over and two large hexagonal planters with Agapanthus. White and Blue. The pots were an ebay purchase and are second hand.












Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/11379171/hanging-baskets-a-different-take site