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Lining a wire basket with loose, long-fiber sphagnum moss might look tricky, but it’s easy once you know a few tips. Here’s how to prepare those great looking baskets yourself.Step 1 — Prepare the moss base. Loose moss needs soaking to make it pliable. The 12-inch basket above took about half of a 432-cubic-inch bag of moss. Put the moss in a plastic storage bin like the one in photo 1 and cover the moss with water.After the moss has soaked for 10 minutes or so, pick up a handful and squeeze out the excess water. Then press and flatten it against the inside of the wire frame- work, starting at the bottom. Aim for about an inch of thickness. Continue with more handfuls up the sides, making sure to mold moss over the rim it may shrink as it dries, so this helps it hold onto the sides. Step 2 — Add a liner and side plants. If you’d like, use a plastic liner over the moss to keep the soil from pushing through the bottom and to conserve moisture. You could try using a plastic grocery or trash bag, buta slightly thicker, 4-mil sheet plastic from the home- improvement store will hold up better.Cut a square to fit comfortably inside the container and use scissors to make a dozen or so ½-inch slits in it for drainage. Push it onto the moss layer and trim off any protruding corners Do you want plants trailing out the sides of your hanging baskets? That’s easy to do with a moss lining, although it takes some care to get them situated. You’ll want to put these in before you add much soil.Choose a spot in the side of the basket and separate the moss with your fingers. Cut a hole with scissors in the plastic just large enough to push the roots through. See the inset to photo 2? It’s easier to tuck the plant. in if you wrap some plastic kitchen wrap around the roots first. Push the plant, roots first, through the hole, as shown in photo 2. Remember to remove the plastic wrap from the root ball when the plant is in place. There are many different styles of hanging baskets available and ready for this next stage. Step 3 — Add soil and the rest of the plants. Use a soilless, sterile potting mix; ordinary potting soil can get hard and compacted from watering. Some potting mixes already have water-retaining crystals in them. They absorb water and release it slowly, keeping the container from drying out as quickly. If your soil doesn’t, you might want to mix about a tablespoon of water retaining crystals into your soil.Add soil up to the level of any plants you put in the side. Then place the rest of the plants, teasing the root balls apart if they look root-bound. Don’t be afraid to really cram plants together to fill out a container. Gradually add and firm soil around the plants until they are at the same level they were in the original containers. Now you can hang and water your hanging basket. There’s really no limit to where you can put a hanging basket. Since you can suspend containers from different kinds of free- standing posts even under trees, they don’t even need a terrace or wall. That means you’ll find hanging baskets in all kinds of conditions and have to choose plants accordingly.Open-sided terraces are likely to be shady, but they’re often bright with indirect light. Shade-tolerant plants, such as impatiens, begonias and streptocarpella, will like baskets hanging from the ceiling in these conditions. The closer to the edge of the terrace a basket is placed, the more sun it will get.What about watering? Because they’re surrounded on all sides by open air and grow in light, well-drained potting mixture, hanging baskets can dry out fast. In warm weather, keep an eye on them and water every day or even twice daily. It’s often difficult to overwater a hanging basket.Sometimes a basket gets dried out, or you have plants, such as begonias, that tend to dry out more between waterings. In those cases, you can take a moss basket down and immerse it up to its rim in a tub or bucket for a good soaking. It may be easier to water this way all the time. With some watering wands, if you try to water a basket hanging above head level, you’ll end up with wet sleeves. Feed your baskets about once a month with a balanced, water-soluble plant food. Make sure to pay attention to plant labels for any information about a specific plant’s nutritional needs.
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