Why do my hanging baskets or pots always look so shit?

[tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz]

I need an intervention

In my head my hanging baskets will look like a picture from Gardners World

In reality they look like someone ran over them. Either I ram too many plants in or not enough. How high do you put compost in before adding plants? Then when I add compost to fill gaps I end up crushing what I've just planted.

Please please give me an idiots guide to making a pretty but simple basket or pot

The plastic pot type of hanging 'basket' don't need nearly as much watering as traditional ones IME.

wondering if it's my big stupid gloves? I should ditch them at this stage and just gives nails a good scrub later

You need different gloves for different uses. Nowadays I only use tough leather/suede rigger type gloves for dealing with the likes of brambles and pyracantha. For general purpose gardening the Showa ones are excellent, reasonable manual dexterity and protection and washable. Some people buy actual leather gloves from charity shops. But if you want more manual dexterity and/or you're dealing with wet but unthorny stuff then a simple pair of marigolds are your friend.

I think is saw a recommendation for marigold gloves on another thread ... excellent. I'll try that

Unfortunately no room to plant early out of elements