by Emily Skelton
 Okay, so you've filled up every last nook in your bountiful garden and can not possibly cram in one more plant. Or maybe you don't have room for a traditional garden at all? Think vertical! Try planting flowers, herbs, or vegetables in a hanging pot or basket. You can hang a pot from a tree, a porch, a front entryway, a fence, or the eaves of your roof. You could hang cherry tomatoes right outside your kitchen door and have fresh tomatoes for your dinner salad. Think about combining flowers and herbs, for example, cilantro with basil or Nasturtium Mix with beetberry. These hanging gardens are exciting to grow, fun to show off to your visitors, and edible too! Here are some tips on how to get started, beginning with a list of easy to grow varieties.
| Unique varieties for your hanging pot or basket |
| Scientific Name |
Common Name |
Comments |
| Tagetes tenuifolia |
Tangerine Gem Marigold |
Beautiful, profuse bright orange flowers. |
| Tagetes tenuifolia |
Lemon Gem Marigold |
Beautiful, profuse bright yellow flowers. |
| Tagetes patula |
French Brocade Marigold |
Flowers in various shades of orange. |
| Lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme |
Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato |
Farm favorite for beauty and flavor, abundant fruit. |
| Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium |
Red Currant Tomato |
Good flavorless fruit, ornamental. |
| Lobularia maritima |
Sweet White Alyssum |
Good background filler, white, semi- trailing. |
| Echium vulgare |
Echium |
Unique cascading racemes: pink, purple, white. |
| Portulaca grandiflora |
Double Mix Portulaca |
Trailing succulent. |
| Phlox drummondii |
Beauty Mix Phlox |
Needs two weeks cold stratification. |
| Ocimum basilicum subsp. minimum |
Greek Basil |
Adorable, compact mounding plants. |
| Tropaeolum majus |
Nasturtium Mix |
Edible in a salad—try it! Hot and spicy similar to mustard greens. |
| Chenopodium capitatum |
Beetberry |
Unique, beautiful, and edible in a salad. |
| Coriandrum sativum |
Slow Bolt Cilantro |
Available as a seedling. |
The Location of Your Hanging Containers
Sunlight Exposure:
- In the northern hemisphere, a porch with a southern exposure has the most sunlight (beware of overheating pots, which kills roots—try putting one pot inside of another for insulation on hot decks).
- Western exposures have hot afternoon sun.
- Eastern exposures have cooler morning sun.
- Northern exposures are the coolest and have the least amount of sunlight hours per day.
Sunlight Requirements: General rules of thumb for sunlight requirements according to The Bountiful Container by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey.
 If the plant has flowers before it sets fruit (tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant), it requires at least six hours of sunlight per day.- If the plant makes edible leaves (spinach, kale, or chard) it requires at least three to four hours of sunlight per day.
Hanging Containers
| Pots |
Baskets |
| The pot should not be too shallow or too small. Look for a pot that is at least 8 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep. For cherry tomatoes, marigolds and nasturtiums the pot should be at least 10 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep. These sizes allow enough room for root growth. Keep the plant well pruned and water every other day with a dilute solution of liquid organic fertilizer such as Earth Juice Grow (when plants are young) and Earth Juice Bloom (when plants are setting flowers and fruit). Pots with reservoirs in the bottom are great when the pot is in full sun or in a dry climate. |
For wire baskets, line with moss, or a product that is made of recycled wood and wool pressed in to a mat; most baskets come with these liners. Other materials that will work to line wire baskets are: weed barrier (permeable black plastic fabric), shade cloth, or burlap. With these alternate products, line the inside of the basket with plastic to contain soil and prevent it from drying too quickly; puncture the plastic with several holes for drainage. (Both the baskets and lining materials are available at your local garden store.) |
The Best Potting Mix
 Next to sunlight and water, soil is the most important ingredient when gardening. In small containers, it is even more crucial to purchase a quality mix. Choose organic potting mix if you can. A good soilless mix contains peat, coco fiber, perlite, and possibly organic compost. Make sure the mix is not heavy and does not have too much noncomposted wood or bark mulch, which can cause excessive acidity in such a small space. If the bag is labeled "topsoil," this is probably not what you want. Lift the bag—if it is heavy, this means it will compact in a small pot not allowing the roots proper oxygenation. For this same reason, don't use soil dug from your garden. A good potting mix will be light due to perlite and coco fiber. If the potting mix does not contain compost or fertilizer, try our Laughing Crow Worm Castings. Create a mix for your pot with 1/3 worm castings and the rest potting mix.
Assembling Your Hanging Pot
 After filling your hanging container with soil mix, plant your seeds directly in the pot or transplant seedlings started in smaller cell trays or two-inch pots. If you are seeding directly, sow more seeds than necessary and thin them out later. For large plants such as tomatoes and marigolds, thin to two plants at most per pot. (At left are two Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato plants in one ten-inch pot.)
Whether you're space challenged in the garden, want to beautify your home, or simply want to grow some edibles close to the kitchen, try a few hanging containers this year. You'll be rewarded with a new gardening experience that's easy on the back and a delight to the senses.
Emily Skelton
Seed Cleaning and Quality Coordinator
Resources:
The Fruit and Vegetable Book by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey
The Big Book of Herbs by Arthur O. Tucker and Thomas Debaggio (see page 56 for detailed instructions on how to grow herbs in containers)
Photo caption: 1) Tangerine Gem Marigolds in a hanging basket 2) Nasturtiums creeping over the edge of their pot 3) Echium in a hanging basket 4) Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato plants in a hanging pot.
|
 |
|
|
IN THIS ISSUE
|
|
|
Dear Organic Gardeners
Spring in the Northeast, field day on a model organic farm...
|
|
Grower Profile
A personal introduction to longtime organic seed grower, Bill Reynolds...
|
|
Field Report
Micaela Colley shares stories from Terra Madre, a Slow Food event in Turin, Italy...
|
|
Book Review: Farming With The Wild Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches...
|
|
Interview with Dan Imhoff author of Farming With The Wild...
|
|
Culinary Herbs Growing tips for herbs to delight the cook and your senses...
|
|
Hang It Up! A new direction for planting opportunities ...
|
|
Farm Report: May '05 Updates on irrigation, compost, and new varieties ...
|
|
News & Views
Co-founder of Permaculture on World Teaching Tour...Organic Seed Alliance to Hold Farmer Field Days ...Seeds of Change Catalog Honored by Industry...
|
|
Please send letters regarding this eNewsletter to:
Scott Vlaun, Editor.
|
|
|
|
