An early morning walk yesterday..and three hanging baskets.

Look familiar? - I've had quite a few that looked like this over the years.

The thing about hanging baskets, and the reason they so often end up like these ones, is that they're really hard to water.  Even if you water them every other day say (and that's pushing it for busy people), you still have to take them down off their hook and put the whole thing in some sort of container and leave it there, full of water, so that the compost can soak it up and become fully moist.  Watering a hanging basket when it's still on its hook, especially when the compost is dry, is pretty much a waste of time, because it all just pours out of the bottom.

There is an answer:....WATER RETAINING GEL OR GRANULES.

If you put a handful of this stuff in when you're planting up, you'll have a much easier time of it in the long run.  The water retaining granules capture the water and swell up, releasing it slowly as the compost gets dry....much better.