Potting Pansies

Ahhh Spring!  It feels like we waited an extra long time for you to arrive this year.

Today is going to be sunny and 74 degrees!  So happy!

I picked up a tray of pansies a couple of days ago anticipating the warm and sunny weekend.  I have had this three tiered hanging basket contraption for years and never found the right place for it.  I can’t tell you how many times I have added it to the Goodwill donation pile and then at the last minute would pull it out again.  I first bought it with the intention of using it in my kitchen to hold onions, potatoes, and maybe some apples.  Well, by the time we got around to using all the potatoes, apples, or onions they all either sprouted, grew “eyes”, or turned mealy.   Not good.

So in my last and final ditch effort to save it and find a use for it, I decided to try and use it as a springtime planter for some pansies.   And it turned out great.   You can do this with almost any container or basket that you might want to plant flowers in and the burlap is much cheaper and easier to work with that the more expensive and bulkier coconut liners you can buy.   I took some leftover burlap, (and you know I have a ton of that) and made liners for the baskets.   I took photos but didn’t realize that my camera setting had been accidentally changed and all of the shots were over exposed and not usuable.  So let me explain with out the help of photos.

Very easy really.  I folded the burlap in half so that it was doubled and then I turned the baskets upside down and used them as a guide to cut out circles of burlap to use as a liner for the baskets.  I traced around each basket with a sharpie pen and I added about 2 and a half inches to the circumference all the way around so that they would come up to just under the edge of the frame of the basket.    Don’t worry if they are not perfect. And you can always trim them so cut them larger than you think you might need.  I liked the added thickness that using two of the burlap cut outs provided so all of my liners used two circles  but you could certainly use one if your burlap is one with a tighter weave.

    

Pansies don’t last around here once the summer heat hits but they will fill in nicely for the Spring and give me lot’s of color until then.  Not sure what I’ll replace them with for the summer months but I think I’ll be keeping my new hanging basket holder now that it has finally found it’s purpose!