Basket or border columns may not be something you have heard of or have tried, and you may be asking what a basket column is. My best description is a large wire basket with a coconut coir liner that gives the appearance of floating on air by virtue of being mounted on a 4-by-4-foot post or metal column.
I first saw something similar more than a decade ago at Goldsmith Seed in Gilroy, Calif. The event was showcasing their new Bada Bing Bada Boom begonia series. It seemed everywhere you looked there were these begonias almost floating on air. I thought to myself wow let’s take this idea to the landscape.
The baskets come pre-punched with holes allowing for easy planting. You might think the design would be hard but in reality, the same idea of thriller, spiller-and-filler is applicable, you just have the option of choosing more species of plants.
Like all container growing during a long hot summer, regular watering is part of the regimen thus it stands to reason that leaching of nutrients will occur and regular feeding will be critically important to keep the plants performing. The Columbus area has had quite a bit of rain and heat but now five months later the baskets are still stopping traffic.
