Plant up an edible hanging basket for a summer full of delicious flavour, picked just outside your back door.
Hanging baskets
You’ll find all you need at the garden centre here in Newcastle upon Tyne, from baskets and liners to ready-grown young plants to fill them with. Tumbling tomatoes are a great place to start, cascading happily from baskets and covered in jewel-like cherry toms from later in summer. Add herbs, such as basil or marjoram, and you’ve got an instant pasta sauce! Chillies add a little fire to your house walls and look really pretty, too, with fruits ripening from green to orange, red or purple (sometimes all three at once!) Varieties such as ‘Basket of Fire’ are bred specially for hanging baskets. Other great veg to try include dwarf French beans, patio peas and strawberries.
How to plant a hanging basket
Line your hanging baskets, then fill with multipurpose compost mixed with a handful of water-retaining gel to help keep things moist and some slow-release fertiliser. Then plant into the top: one 30cm basket can hold six to eight plants. Hang up in a sunny spot, preferably near the back door where you can pick it easily, keep well watered and within a few weeks you’ll be enjoying a display that tastes as good as it looks!