To display a lot of color in a small space, just lookup. Hanging baskets can expand your garden and add interest to decks, patios and porches. Building your own is fun and offers more options, says Brooke Edmunds, a community horticulturist with Oregon State University. Here's how to create showstopping hanging baskets from start to finish.
1. CHOOSE YOUR CONTAINER
Baskets come in many sizes and styles. Select a basket material that's lightweight, such as wire, plastic, wicker, or peat.
“You can get creative and reuse something, too,” says Brooke. Metal watering cans, colanders, and other containers can also work if they have drainage holes or if you add them yourself.
When picking the container size, keep in mind what you plan on growing. A basket that's too small for your plants requires more watering and pruning. For larger plants with deep root systems, a bigger basket offers more depth and soil surface. Baskets with open sides will allow you to plant along the sides.
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Sense or Nonsense? - Why some birds can taste and smell - but others can't
Does a porcelain berry taste like a blueberry to a gray catbird? Does a block of lard smell like frying bacon to a northern flicker? The short answer is no. While some avian species do have a well-adapted sense of taste or smell, they can't distinguish between flavors and odors the way humans can. They're not picking up every ingredient in the suet you put out, says José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ornithology researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the director of Freshkills Biological Station in Staten Island, New York.
Maple Mania - Amazing facts about this fall foliage mainstay
Amazing facts about this fall foliage mainstay
Food-Focused and Fierce - Meet Canada jays and learn why they eat almost anything they can find
Even if you haven't heard of Canada jays, you've heard of their relatives. Members of the corvid family, they belong to the same group as American crows, blackbilled magpies, and jays including blue, Steller's and scrub. "Unlike many of the other jays, a Canada jay doesn't have a crest of any kind; it just has a rounded head," says Dale Gentry, director of conservation for Audubon Upper Mississippi River.In 2018, the Canada jay's name was changed from gray jay, but Dale thinks the former adjective was fitting. "Most of its body is shades of gray with some white," he says. "There are different subspecies that have different physical traits, but most of them have some lighter coloring on their foreheads, upper breasts and throats, each with a darker streak that starts at each eye and goes back."
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