Hanging baskets and also what is this plant?

[Crazyhousewife23]

How do I do hanging baskets( new to gardening but finally have a garden) I love the ones that look full and flow down. I’m also looking for ideas as to what to plant around the garden that is easy to maintain.
below is a picture of a mysterious plant in my garden. As you can see my garden is over grown and there are a few potted plants to go up the fence

It’s a nettle

Are these hard to pull out

It’s a thistle and I think I can see a dock behind it. Just dig them out with a garden fork. Push it in as far as you can and then lever the weed up.

For basket plants, trailing geraniums (pelargoniums) are quite forgiving and relatively low maintenance for a beginner.

Wowsers that is some thistle! If you leave it it will grow to about 6 feet with an amazing purple flower.

It's a thistle, you need to dig it out rather than pull so that you get the whole root,otherwise it'll just grow straight back.

Get all the root out of the thistle and dock.

Hanging baskets
It's not quite warm enough for hanging baskets yet...I'd say mid to Late May - though B&Q will sell you one know but too soon unless you have a greenhouse to keep them in till the weather warms up. But they are very easy and lovely when you do get the weather.

You can buy then ready filled from garden centres or get them posted to you
https://www.thompson-morgan.com/preplanted-hanging-baskets

Or make your own - very easy. I like to put Surfinia in mine or trailing lobelia. But trailing begonias can look good too.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-create-a-summer-hanging-basket/

General Planting

You'll need to clear a border and get all the weeds and root out. Come back and say how much sunshine the garden gets and which way it faces that makes a difference to success and failure.

Basically buy plants that suit how much sun your garden gets, dig a hole, put plant in and water it in well. And water in the first year if it's a dry summer.

Try not to be tempted by all the cheap bedding plants in the supermarkets just now. They still need protection from chilly nights.

The late May Bank Holiday is the best time to plant them out. If you want to get them now, then keep them protected in a cold frame, greenhouse or mini greenhouse house until all risks of overnight frosts have gone.

As to your thistle, I'd be looking to get rid of it. Sorry.

Oh no it isn't.

Bumblebees love them so much!

Hanging baskets - compost, mixed with a handful of gromore. A larger basket won't dry out as quick and will look better. Get some sturdy hooks, filled baskets are heavy. Decide on a colour scheme. Get some greenery eg. Ivy to offset the flowers. Plant trailing plants around the edge eg. Lobelia. Make sure it's the trailing variety. Add maybe trailing fuschia, and geranium, petunia, possibly a bacopta. Pack the plants in. Water well and give them a week or two to settle down. Water daily or at least check them, even if it's wet and don't put them out until mid May earliest.

Don't be in a rush to dig it out - it might be an Echinops. Mine looks rather like that at the moment, but, come the summer, it will be making a lot of bees very happy with its beautiful blue globe-shaped flowers. And me! Because it's a lovely, reliable plant and very easy to care for.

I make hanging baskets for work. IMO the metal ones you fill with moss are nicest as you can plant up several layers round the edge. You start with a little mat of moss that you put a couple of handfuls of compost/feed/water-retaining granules onto, then you put the plants to poke through the metalwork, and tuck the moss flat against the metal frame so that it holds the plant roots/compost.

I'd usually start with 4/5 trailers at the bottom of a 16 inch basket - surfinias and glechoma are my favourites but fuchsias, verbena, trailing pelargoniums and lysimachia all work well too. Then a layer with more 'filler' - people use lobelia, cheapie begonias, impatiens and so on. This is just for cost, though - you could use nicer things. Then a layer of 'thrillers' that are pretty - I love orange lantana, again geraniums and fuchsias and petunias and trailing begonias, and bacopa (which smells lovely); you can also put in things like bidens ('bee dance' is gorgeous) that will spread sideways. I'd keep building layers in tightly. Then on the top, you want a good upright thing in the middle - a zonal geranium or upright fuchsia, or ipomoea (lovely dark purple leaves) or a big begonia. Then you fill in with other things that are a mix of trailing over the edge and standing upright. Nice things include nemesia (some of it is scented), diascia, heliotrope, and little calibrachoas that will trail gently.

Remember to feed once a week when you're into growing season.

Hope some of those names are helpful when you go to buy plants!

FWIW I think your thistly thing is a thistle not echinops, but could be wrong.

I saw a picture of Morning Glory and it looked so pretty.

I’ve got morning glory just germinating, seed from last year’s plants that I had growing up the drainpipes….but that basket looks incredible I think I’ll try it.

FWIW I think your thistly thing is a thistle not echinops, but could be wrong I’m with @SarahAndQuack The only thing I notice is I can’t see any spines on the end of the leaf lobes, but that might just be the quality of the photo. If it is a thistle, it’s spear thistle, which is one of the more attractive ones, but don’t let it seed!

@tetralaw I’ve seen that picture before

I’m putting tumbling tomato plants in my hanging baskets this year .

Watching as my hanging baskets always look a bit shite