I have 4 cocofiber baskets. 1~bogainvillia 2 yrs 2 strawberry plants (4) 2 yrs 3 Rex begonia this year 4 morning glorys/purple jew/dianthus my last 2 are ever changeing..one was dianthus/petunias last year,the other my orchiad cacti(now in another smaller planter). I have a foam plastic plate in the bottoms of them.they are 10 inch baskets(dollar general $4)the fall I plan on replaceing my cocofiber liners and will use spagum moss as it looks good and was told would last longer.I had ordered a catalog with all kinds of haystack/wire planter baskets/urns/hangers/balls.they had all kinds of tips for watering& plant selections& care.I haven't had no critter problems with my liners.but are getting thin in spots& my begonia one is crooked,but tried to tear away when tried to fix....so its staying in that sliped postion.I have to say my bougainvillia preformed soooo much better when moved into this basket.I actually water it every other day and live in south TX where we get very hot and it gets full sun till about 2-3.It now blooms from may till March,where before was only about 2 months and not very well(cold GH from Dec-march) I have birds remove pine needles from my compost....I have placed on plants roots.

A few years ago I bought a pair of hanging half-round wall planter baskets from Kmart. They were originally black wrought iron; a couple of years back I spray-painted them a matte antique gold, partly because the hardware on our house is gold/brass color, including the carriage lamps (from which the baskets hang) on either side of the garage door. I need to buy new coconut fiber liners for the baskets so I can replant them, but I'm not sure about what size to buy. Home Depot & Lowe's don't carry the half-round liners, nor does Kmart. (They carry the 'horse trough' size liners, but they're long & narrow & won't work.) I tried cutting some large round coco mats to fit last year, & that was a disaster. I can't find anywhere in STL that carries the half-round pre-molded liners, so I'm going to order some online. There are a couple of places on the internet I found through Google, but they have standard sizes -- usually 16" & 22". In fact, I found my exact baskets on eBay, but I don't need new baskets, just the liners! (see pic below ... sorry it's fuzzy, I copied from eBay) The dimensions are exactly what I measured -- planting area measures 8" tall, 19" wide, 8" deep. I'm afraid if I buy the 16" liners they won't be big enough by the time I put in potting soil & plants, so I'm leaning toward the 22" or 18" liners, depending on where I buy them. Suggestions? Thx in advance.

Bunny, we did all our baskets last year with assorted perennials: Artemesia, Lamium, Lewisia, Ajuga, Heuchera and one with an 'Invincible' as the focal point center piece. Admittedly most of these were in baskets somewhat deeper then those coir mat baskets you see @ WallyWorld this time of year, but as long as you don't make the mistake of planting too close to the edge of the container you should be alright. We used two of the coir baskets, one with a Prostrate Rosemary and the other with variegated Sage and lined the rim of the baskets with Wooly Thyme. In our mild winter they have all done very well, the Rosemary started to flower in early February and the Thyme has flourished and drapes nicely over the edge. We did NOT line the baskets with plastic and I have no doubt the coir liner has now been infiltrated with roots, which will make removing them when I re-pot them with fresh potting mix a bit more tricky, but with the wet winters we have in the West Coast's temperate Rainforest lining them with plastic would likely have lead to root rot. Good luck with you baskets, GO FOR IT! Pieter

Hi I have an occasional bird problem,mostly Cardinals and mostly with long fibered spagnum. The most desirable fibers are near the center of the pot lol Worst is squirrels !! They jump from pot to pot often pulling them down. I use hardware cloth on epis attached directly to the trees .Works but limits the direction of growth of the plant. I made some long cages from the frames and wire to house some orchids but he learned to open the door!! lol I wired the door shut and I'm waiting for him to bring along some wire cutters Now I'm a "Live and let live " type of gardener and they are adorable when seeking handouts but my philosophy is leaning toward "Kill or be Killed "lol Dirty Don't you have the same problem with rot?? gary