Question: My hanging baskets get too heavy after filling with soil and plants. What can I do to make them lighter?

Answer: You can use a soilless mix, which tends to be lighter than potting soil, or a 50:50 mix of the two. Be sure the planters arenOt adding too much weight D for example, plastic planters will be much lighter than ceramic ones. Note, however, that all planters will be relatively heavy after watering. If the baskets are larger than the usual-sized ones, you might switch to smaller ones. Or, alternately, you can place some Styrofoam packing peanuts in the bottom of the container, cover with a water permeable material such as landscape fabric, and fill the rest with soil. Remember that youOll be restricting the available space for the roots, however.