Buy It: Vertical Hanging Flower Garden Planter Grow Bag Kit (from $20, Etsy) The Vertical Hanging Flower Garden Planter Grow Bag Kit (from $20, Etsy) comprises a 24 X 9-inch eco-fabric bag with several pockets that you fill with the included potting mix. If you choose the hummingbird option, the kit will include a seed packet containing: crimson clover, annual candytuft, Chinese forget-me-not, four o’clock, white sweet alyssum, corn poppy, cosmos, purple coneflower, clasping coneflower, purple prairie clover, and black-eyed Susan. (You can also choose from the butterfly, shady annual, or mixed petunia pack.) Besides producing vibrant flowers that attract pollinators, one of the best things about these seeds is that they’re easy to grow. Once you’ve added potting mix to each pocket, just sprinkle in your seeds and lightly cover them with a little more mix. Hang the bag by its nylon rope in a sunny spot and then gently water to settle in the seeds. In about a week, sprouts should start appearing. Keep the soil consistently moist while the seeds are germinating. It’s best to start your seeds in spring or summer to allow the plants enough time to bloom before the winter. The Etsy shop Touch Of ECO has a nearly perfect 5-star rating with more than 14,500 sales and has dozens of positive reviews on its hanging flower kit. One buyer gave her purchase 5 stars and wrote, “It is starting to grow already only after 5 days!! We are excited! I bought one for my neighbor, so we are going to have beautiful hummingbirds, butterflies, and wild birds galore!” Growing your own hummingbird garden is exciting not just because of all the fascinating creatures it will bring up close, but because pollinators of all kinds are an integral part of our world. According to the U.S. Forest Service, “Without pollinators, the human race and all of earth’s terrestrial ecosystems would not survive.” So when you add some flowers to attract these (literal) life-savers to your garden, you can feel good about helping out wildlife, too.
