Unique Serving Platter

Although landscape designers often neglect hanging baskets when planning your garden design, these cheerful, low maintenance baskets are beloved by the home gardener. Drive around your neighborhood to see what I mean. The most elaborate garden setting, with extensive flower beds, ground covers and rose gardens, still have hanging baskets on the porch or on the deck. Gardeners are generally obsessive when it comes to filling space with beautiful plants. You’ll see apartment balconies and duplex entries adorned with hanging baskets of flowers, ferns and trailing plants to add charm and warmth in a limited space.

Hanging baskets are also popular decorations inside the home. These lovely baskets draw the eye upward, adding dimension to a room. A large fern or a cascading trailing plant are welcome additions to the kitchen or bathroom, bringing a bit of nature indoors. Likewise, outdoor porch displays make sitting outside on a cool summer’s day an inviting prospect. For a shady location, plants such as fuchsia, begonia and trailing campanula make a dramatic display.

When decorating porches and decks with hanging baskets, the best effect is achieved with baskets placed a few feet apart, running the length of the porch or deck. If you choose a hanging display of fuchsias in baskets, you can increase the color impact with pots of blue campanula, forget-me-nots or phlox, grouped in clusters below the baskets.

Hanging baskets are best suited to hanging or trailing plants, which cascade down to eye level. Plants like begonia, when young, may be hung from wall mounted hangers, bringing them within easy view. Older begonias sprout baby size trailers, similar to the so called spider plant. Begonias will die down in winter if left outdoors, but will continue to thrive if wintered over indoors.

For sunny locations, plants like trailing gazania and thunbergia are perfect candidates for hanging gardens, adding their bright, cheerful personalities to match your warm mood. Add some potted mums or marigolds grouped beneath your baskets for a perfect match. When planning your hanging basket garden, remember that the containers tend to dry out quickly. Wire baskets, lined with an inch or two of spaghnum moss and filled with a mixture of potting soil and vermiculite, provide a moisture retentive environment for your hanging plants. This keeps your plants in good health with less maintenance on your part.

It’s a good idea to have a spray bottle for spritzing your friends daily, as well as a watering can with a long spout or metal extension for watering chores. Choose plants appropriate to the exposure, follow these care tips and watch your hanging gardens become the envy of your neighborhood.

Wicker baskets have many uses. You can find a plethora of reasons to invest in this kind of product. There are endless ideas for these traditional elements for the home and I’m going to share a bunch of them here. Keep in mind that there are many more ways to put wicker baskets to use. These ideas are in no way comprehensive.

Gift packaging can be a real chore, especially if you are combining a lot of different items in a particular theme for one person. The concept of using wicker baskets as a way of presenting the gifts is beyond genius. Not only does the person receive a great present in the items that you have chosen, they get a lovely wicker basket to boot.

But what do the recipients do with the wicker baskets once they get home? There are plenty of uses for these items ranging from decoration to storage. Some of us like to use the wicker baskets to house gifts for other people in the same way that someone would reuse a gift bag.

There are a handful of wicker baskets that never circulate around the gift circuit. These prime choices have other household uses that are far more valuable than present arrangements. I have received many of these woven items and I have a few that I keep for my personal use.

The bathroom is the ideal place for this kind of product. Storage that is functional and decorative is difficult to find. Wicker baskets are great for holding carefully folded towels and washcloths. I like to keep a collection of hand towels right next to the sink so that we always have a fresh towel at hand.

The wicker baskets are ideal for organization in just about every room. I have these decorative storage containers in my kitchen, bedroom and even in my living room. They provide a convenient and attractive home for many items that usually wind up in a cluttered mess.

Anyone who has kids knows how quickly toy clutter can get out of hand. I like to keep wicker baskets on hand so that I can pick up toys before company arrives. My daughter and I sort through the containers and put the items back where they belong each night.

The next time that you get a gift basket keep in mind that while what is inside is the primary present, the container has many uses as well. Wicker baskets are affordable, versatile and beautiful. I can’t think of a better gift.