In addition to making seed tape for my veggie garden this weekend, I was eager to try out Organic Gardening's idea to make a "salad ball" out of coir-lined hanging planters. Lettuce and herbs hanging on the back porch, not taking up garden space? Sign me up!
Everything went fine, until it was time to actually lift the thing and I realized that it would rip out any hook I could possibly anchor into the top of my porch.
Advice, ideas, thoughts? We have a plan for what to try next, but welcome your suggestions as well.
Here's how far we got:
1. Detach the hanging chains from 2 identical coir-lined hanging baskets:
2. Fill with pre-moistened potting mix, making sure each half is very full:
3. Place a sturdy piece of cardboard or other paper (I used a thick paper bag) over one of the filled baskets. Holding the cardboard against the soil, flip it onto the other basket (this reminded me of turning a cake out a pan):
4. Carefully remove the paper/cardboard. Secure the two half-spheres together with either sturdy wire (as the magazine suggests) or with garden ties (as I did). I wound up with a sphere that looked like a cross between a medieval weapon and a science fair entry....
5. Reattach hanging chains to the bottom basket and hang. Here's where the problem came up: our ball weighed in at around 20 pounds! My husband tried in vain to commandeer a plastic tomato cage for the purpose, but that didn't do the trick:
We're currently devising a solution that either involves a thick wooden post with an iron arm/hook attached, or some kind of in-the-ceiling-of-the-porch option that won't easily strip. While we continue to mull, please chime in with your ideas!
Can i make a laye and way after tue fact suggestion?
-Try lining the planters with lightweight weed mat or coconut husk. Line them like you would, a baking tray.
-Then cut slits where ever you want your seedlings to go.
-Push your seedlings through the slits. I usually layer mine from bottom to top and making my way around the bowl and stack'em on top of one another keeping the roots all intact just how they pop out of the container.
-fill only the spaces with soil.
-repeat and then stick together to form sphere. Voila! Lightweight lettuce balls
Posted by: Lisa | April 21, 2018 at 07:34 PM
I'm always wondering why the universe keeps creating spheres in every creation, been a supernova, galaxy, planet, star, it is always a sphere, maybe we should pay attention to the sacred geometry that the ancient cultures use.
Posted by: buy viagra | August 03, 2010 at 01:26 PM
We did the lettuce ball. We used a 2x4 by 7.5ft board with a sturdy 15" hanging basket hook at the top. The 2x4 was secured to an existing 4x4 on our grill prep station. It DOES get heavy when wet, the 2x4 is bowing a little. So we've added a hook on the other side and we're going to put a regular basket on that side to counterweight it. It should help. The ball looks awesome now with multicolor lettuce! Ready for harvest!
Posted by: Carl | May 07, 2009 at 08:08 AM
I had the same problem! I didn't notice how heavy it was until AFTER I already put the seedlings in. My husband secured a shepherd's hook to one of our fence posts and that is working fine so far. I'll probably wake up one morning with a bent shepherd's hook and a salad ball on the ground, haha.
Good luck!
Posted by: Brandi Shaw | April 09, 2009 at 08:31 PM
Find a stud and use a BIG anchor and screw-in hook?
Or maybe take the chains apart where they join at the top and hang each one on it's own hook with anchors.
Those are just the first things to come to mind.
A search of Organic Gardening's website and a quick Google search yield no answers to one burning question though...
How the heck is this thing supposed to work????
Anyway, good luck! :)
Posted by: Laux | March 25, 2009 at 07:05 PM
I found this website which may offer a hook to take the weight of your salad ball...but I also had really good luck with ideas from searching "plant hooks" in Google and going Target online. They have hanging plant "trees" (holds four balls), plus large white brackets that might be better than normal screw in brass plant hooks. Hope this helps!
Posted by: Lisa | March 24, 2009 at 03:37 PM
what's the diameter of the baskets? is smaller an option in order to keep the hanging porch basket idea open?
Posted by: Lisa | March 24, 2009 at 01:46 PM