Hanging basket help

[MATB1]

I know nothing about flowers or planting stuff or gardening or anything so wondered if you kind folk could advise me on how I can recreate this and use old buckets instead of hanging baskets outside my front door? Do I just plant stuff and water it? Should I make some holes in it?

[Innocuoususername]

I would think that there's some kind of smaller plastic container inside those buckets, then a void underneath, otherwise they'd be bloody heavy to hang. It would also get round the need to drill a hole in the metal for drainage.

But yes, you just plant stuff (using compost marketed as suitable for containers if you are a beginner and not sure of the right mixture for optimum drainage). Apologies if I'm stating the obvious, but you won't be able to get the plants in the pictures at this time of year, it'll be pansies etc in the garden centres.

[MATB1]

So perhaps just a normal brown flower pot inside? Genius!!

Are there any little flowers that will grow this time of year?

Thank you, no worries about the obvious - I'm a total novice but think these look lovely so am grateful for any tips

[Innocuoususername]

Yes I'd put a normal plastic pot inside, the same diameter as the external container (or as near as poss) but not necessarily as deep as the buckets. Many container plants don't have very deep roots so by doing that you wouldn't need to fill the whole bucket with compost, which would be heavy and a waste of compost. I reckon about 2/3rds the length of those buckets in the picture?

For this time of year, you could try pansies, violas, cyclamen for flowers; you're also not too late to plant tulip bulbs for flowers next spring. Hanging baskets and containers in general look better with some foliage plants to give them some structure, eg ivy to trail over the edges, or ferns or heathers in the centre to give height. Have a look on Pinterest for winter container planting, there are loads of lovely ideas. A decent garden centre should have a variety of plants suitable for planting now, but you can get a tray of pansies in Sainsbury's

Container gardening can be more labour intensive than planting in flower beds, even in winter they can dry out if they are in the rain shadow of the house so just keep an eye on how wet they are. You want moist but not waterlogged.

And don't worry about being a novice! Part of the joy of gardening is learning as you go along, finding out what works in your garden and experimenting with different plants. None of the plants I've mentioned above are very expensive, so it's worth a try.

[Innocuoususername]

For example, pansies and violas with ivy and something else I can't identify pinterest.com/pin/217439488232268961/

[MaudantWit]

Those buckets do indeed look lovely. I bought something very similar when I was on holiday, intending to use it as a planter, but I'm now pondering hanging it up instead. I agree it would be better to put a smaller, lightweight pot inside it.

In the Pinterest picture, I think the reddish thing on the left might be a skimmia and the foliage on the right looks like euonymus. I saw a gorgeous trough yesterday planted with skimmia, cyclamen and ivy.