Johannesburg South Garden Club learns about hanging baskets
It’s easy and affordable to make and, during any season, brings life and ambience to any environment.
JOHANNESBURG South Garden Club learned all about hanging baskets on March 26, with guest speaker Richard Eltringham.
Richard, a horticulturist at the Lambton-based Majestic Nursery gave handy tips about hanging baskets, the kinds of plants he prefers to use when making them and how much maintenance these hanging baskets would require.
He suggested that one should make more than one at a time because it’s easy and affordable to make.
“We use indigenous plants, mostly succulents, for our hanging baskets,” Richard said.
“We know that water is getting scarcer and scarcer. We treat water as a precious commodity and are always as water-wise as possible. This is why we prefer using succulents, as they thrive under harsh conditions and need very little to no maintenance.”
Richard had an empty metal-wire hanging basket, lined with coir, ready to fill with his plants of choice. On top of the coir, he added a few pages of wet, scrunched-up newspaper (to retain water for the plants) and added some potting soil until a third of the basket was filled.
On top of this soil, he arranged a few plants – different species of desert roses and some bright red succulent flowers – and stuffed the gaps between them with more potting soil until the basket was completely full.
Handy tips
• You can either submerge the bottom of the basket in water until all the soil is wet or you can water it at the top.
• Don’t water the plant while it’s hanging.
• Water it while it’s set down and let it get enough chance to drain before hanging it up.
• After about 12 months, you can consider pruning it or relocating the individual plants to larger bodies of soil.
• No need to add plant food, otherwise the plants will grow at a very rapid pace almost uncontrollably.
Garden Club attendees will be learning how to grow their own mushrooms at home at the next meeting, which will be taking place on April 13 at the Klipriviersberg Recreation Centre.
Care to join? Contact Dennis Boddington (chairperson) on 083 642 1967 or 011 432 6208 or Jean Stothart (vice-chairperson) on 082 459 1141 or 011 435 4230 for more information.
For free daily local news in the south, visit our sister newspapers Alberton Record, Comaro Chronicle, Southern Courier and Get it Joburg South Magazine.
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