GARDENING TIPS: Hanging Basket How-To

Hanging baskets are all the rage this time of year. But if you're a little short on funds to purchase some baskets, tonight's Gardening Report will show you the way to create your own hanging baskets.

Julie Riley, from UAF Cooperative Extension Services, says "Welcome back to the Garden Report! Today I'm going to show you how to make a low cost hanging basket.

​It's always easy to go to the garden center and buy one, or, purchase plants and then just plug it in your own. Where you have something that will hang down and something a little more upright like this Martha Washington Geranium. ​

But, to be really low cost, you can start a hanging basket from seed. There aren't a lot of flowers that you could select, but I have a few ideas for you. There are really short sweet peas that if you put them in a hanging basket, they'll drape over. ​

And then there's Baby's Breath, the annual Baby's Breath, which is also a plant that will spill over the side of the basket. And so what we are going to do today though is add some new soil, a seed starter is actually.. the new soil we're going to add is potting soil. It's a little courser than the seed starting mix, and once we've got that filled up, we're just going to plant some seeds.​

So the sweet peas are a big seed, and these are a dwarf variety we'll be using. Which only grows about two feet. So you might let one, you know, trail up and the others are going to go down. ​

So because these seeds are bigger, you see that I just poked holes in the potting soil and I'm adding my sweet peas. And these seeds are really tiny compared to the garden peas that you eat. And so I'm just going over the top, and you don't have to spend a lot of money. ​

Tune in next week, when we'll be in the garden."​