The Trial 3 - the baskets

I have been taking part in a trial of various things and plants for Thompson and Morgan.  This has involved some seeds, some plug plants and amongst other things, a selection of hanging baskets.  I confess I am not a fan of hanging baskets.  My mother used to always have one.  It involved geraniums, blue trailing lobelia and various other plants.  She would water it every day using a milk bottle filled with water.  They always seemed like they needed a lot of attention in my view, so I was not keen to receive some.

I have said previously that I am enjoying this trial as it is making me confront some of my gardening demons, so the hanging baskets had to used.  I resisted the easy option of filling them with some of the supplied geraniums, begonias and petunias.  I will blog more about them another day, I decided for these baskets I would try something else.

Seeds were duly sown and soon germinated.  This made me very happy.

Then they started to flower and I had that real pleasure of when what you think might look quite nice turns out to be wonderful.

I planted them up with some meadow seeds.  Now I have to say these were not Thompson and Morgan meadow seeds (sorry) they were some I had left over from something else.

I am so pleased with the  effect, hanging meadows in the sky.  They hang from the pergola which also feels apt as the pergola is the portal between the formal and wild garden so they mark the transition from one area to another.
The positives:  they are pretty, they attract bees and other beneficial insects, the constant rain means I have not had to water them once.

The negatives:  I keep banging my head on them as I walk through.

The green vinyl baskets are not the most attractive things, but they are very strong and practical.  They do have holes in the base so that flowers could be grown through them to hide the plastic, and they could be used to line a more attractive outer casing.  As a non-hanging basket person I think they are functional and good.

and don't you just love it when a plan comes together?