With a new hanging basket season approaching, it’s time to plan bigger and better baskets than ever before! With unlimited combinations of flowers, vegetables, and herbs, we thought introducing a few new and exciting ideas to your hanging baskets this year would be great. Fruit baskets! Not the kind you gift, the kind you grow! You could say they’re as easy as low-hanging fruit. Below we’ve created a unique list of fruits that love hanging baskets for you to try this season!
1. Cucumbers
Sliced in salads or fresh off the vine, cucumbers are fresh for summer picking and love to grow in hanging baskets. They’re filled with vitamin K, B, C, Copper, Potassium, Magnesium and much more! With gravities help, cucumbers can grow long and straight from the basket, creating the most ideal cucumber shape. When grown in the garden, cucumbers are susceptible to Amphids, Cucumber Beetles, Flea Beetles and more. Growing your cucumbers in a hanging basket provides them with better protection from these common garden pests! Oh, and don’t forget how much easier it will be to harvest pickles from the porch!
Cucumber Mini White are deliciously sweet and mild, Cucumber Mini White is the best choice for hanging baskets as the small 3-5″ fruits cascade beautifully, creating an easy to pick & esthetically pleasing harvest. In just 58-75 days, you’ll be jarring porch-pickles in no time!
2. Strawberries
The queen of summer fruit is as versatile as the desserts she creates! With endless strawberry jams, pies, tarts, bars, smoothies, and cakes, strawberries generate a blast of flavour for many summer dishes! Don’t have a yard to plant strawberries? That is no problem at all. When grown in hanging baskets, strawberries perform amazingly! It is a great way to keep your strawberries out of reach from birds, but it’s also a quick and convenient way to reach for one of two as needed!
Natural White Strawberry tastes like pineapple! These unique white strawberries are the perfect patio conversation starter. Plant your Natural White Strawberries in full sun from April to May and you can expect pineapple tasting strawberries in just 4-6 weeks.
3. Cucamelon
Is it a cucumber, or is it a melon? Also known as Mexican Sour Cucumber, Mouse Melon or Melothria Scabra, the Cucamelon is a miniature relative to cucumbers! With a taste similar to a cucumber, the Cucamelon is sweeter with a hint of citrus lime. Often enjoyed fresh or pickled, Cucamelon is also great for your skin, with loads of vitamin K, C, E and fibre. When grown in a hanging basket, the Cucamelon enjoys climbing up walls and gazebos! An excellent plant for creating privacy and fuller green space on patios. Though they perform at their best when placed in full sun, Cucamelon can also tolerate partial sun.
Cucamelon grow in as little as 67 days, and will be ready to harvest once they are just over an inch long and firm to the touch. Place your hanging Cucamelon in full sun in a 5-7 gallon size basket, providing one inch of water weekly.
4. Tomatillo
The tomatillo is a small green or purple fruit with a paper-like peel. If eaten raw, the tomatillo offers a tart and citrusy flavour, which softens to a sweeter taste when cooked. They’re high in vitamin C, A, K, fibre, potassium, niacin and much more. As a popular ingredient in salsa verde, Tomatillos are also enjoyed on their own, either raw, sauteed, roasted or boiled. They make a powerfully healthy fruit to have quick access to when grown in a basket as long as they can get at least 6 hours of sun a day.
Tomatillo Purple are sweeter than green Tomatillos! Place your Tomatillo Purple in full sun with regular watering and good draining. Harvest your Tomatillo Purple in 75-100 days once the fruit turns purple and is firm to the touch.
5. Cape Gooseberries
Tangy, tart, sweet and tropical tasting, the Cape Gooseberry is also known as a Peruvian Groundcherry originating from South America. Full of fibre and low in calories, the Gooseberry is high in vitamin C, making them great for your skin. After harvesting them in June and July, they’re perfect for making plenty of unique jams, purees, crumbles, tarts, drinks, salads and sauces! As an easy grower, the Gooseberry makes a beautiful display when grown in a hanging basket.
Organic Gooseberry Gold Berry perform at their best when placed in full sun with good draining. Maintain moist soil for a heavy yield in June until July. To test when your Gooseberries are ready, give them a gentle sqeeze! Once they are soft, they’ll be ready for the picking!
