How to make hanging plant balls for your home

May 15, 2016

Plant balls are both decorative and help you keep your cooking herbs close by. You can change the contents of this suspended mini-garden every season and add some new flowers for colour. Here's how.

How to make hanging plant balls for your home

1. Find a beautiful harmony

When selecting plants, consider the leaf shape, colour and development conditions of each.

  • Wild climbing thyme works well as a base and oregano, which falls, and the broadleaf comfrey to contrast with the feathery foliage of the everlasting.
  • Pelargonium (geranium) has a delicious lemony scent and marigolds with yellow flowers look great because of their brilliance.
  • Basil, parsley, chives and mint, so useful in the kitchen, complete the package.

2. Create plant balls

Materials:

  • 2 metal hanging baskets
  • 2 coconut fibre protective nets (birch bark or moss will also work)
  • Potting soil containing a slow-release fertilizer and a water-retaining gel
  • Small bag of perlite and vermiculite mixture
  • Plastic wrap
  • Wire
  • Corrugated cardboard
  • Aromatic plants
  • Wire cutters
  • Scissors
  • Gardening gloves
  • Watering can
  • Spray
  • Soluble fertilizer

Putting it together:

  1. Place a metal basket on an appropriate bracket with its protective net inside. Sprinkle with water so that it swells: it will be easier to make holes. Make a series of holes. Protect each plant with plastic wrap. Push them gently into the holes. Do the same with the second basket. Designate different plants for each basket.
  2. To make the soil lighter, mix with perlite and vermiculite. Partially fill the baskets. Pack down to remove air pockets around the roots and plant comfrey at the rear of the higher basket. Once the ball is assembled, it will grow from the top.
  3. Cut a corrugated cardboard circle to close the upper basket. Drill holes in it to allow water to flow. Secure with wire.
  4. Place the baskets on top of each other to form the ball. Tie them with wire using the wire cutters and by twisting the wire. For added security, attach suspension chains on the edge of each basket.

If you like Indian or Asian food, plant cilantro, shiso, Thai basil and chilies. Choose oregano, sage, thyme and savoury for Mediterranean cuisine.

3. Care for the plant balls

  • Place the ball in a secure place because it is heavy, especially once watered. Choose hooks and brackets designed to support the weight and attach them securely to the wall, never on crumbling bricks or rotting wood.
  • Until the roots have taken, do not expose the ball to the sun in the morning for one or two weeks. Then place it in a sunny place, protected from the wind.
  • Make a soluble fertilizer for support every 15 days.
  • Water every day through the holes at the top.
  • Spray the foliage with water. It should always be moist so as not to turn yellow.

These mini gardens are not only beautiful but are a creative and functional way to have herbs on-hand.

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