The atmosphere of an indoor garden, terrace, patio, lath house, or home greenhouse can be enhanced by the addition of hanging baskets filled with a profusion of flowers and foliage. Baskets create eye-level gardens. They add color and interest to bare walls, and afford extended planting space-a real boon to gardeners whose plantings are limited to a small area. The imaginative gardener will discover unusual containers and countless ways to use them around the house and garden.

   I use the word "basket" to designate any container which will hold living plants, and which can be suspended from a support. It could be a purchased or homemade wire basket filled with pendulous tuberous begonias, achimenes, and English ivy, to be hung from the roof of a porch. It might be a bucket of blue-flowered browallia, a slatted wooden box planted with sedum, a pail of cascading fuchsias, or a pendent ivy in a coconut shell.

   Suspend hanging baskets from terrace or patio standards, porch ceilings, awning frames, wooden or metal tripods, overhanging eaves, or from tree branches. Hang them from brackets on walls, fences, posts, or from ornamental grillwork. Hang them from wire hooks in greenhouses, lath houses, and sun porches. Suspend small baskets such as raffia-wound jugs, cans, or pots from screw eyes or brackets in any room. Paint a bird cage to harmonize with interior decor, and plant it with greenery or flowers to match or contrast with the color scheme.

   When you make plans to decorate with any kind of hanging basket, remember that when it is filled with moist soil and plants, strong support will be needed. Use screw eyes, eyebolts, clothesline hooks, brackets, or some type of pulley arrangement for holding the baskets. The specific kind of hardware is a matter of personal preference, as long as requirements of the location are met.

   Attach an aluminum tray or a plastic pot saucer to the bottom of each hanging basket indoors. Otherwise water will drip onto floors, woodwork, and furnishings.

   Wire baskets or open-spaced wooden ones can be lined with sheet moss, placed green side out. If this is not immediately available, ask your florist to order some for you. A 2-inch layer of unshredded sphagnum moss also makes a good liner. Moisten the moss and press it firmly against the sides of the container, A layer of aluminum foil or sheet plastic will keep soil from shifting through the moss and will also help the planting retain moisture. To facilitate drainage, punch holes in the foil or plastic near the bottom of the basket. The aluminum or plastic lining is not necessary where random water seepage from the basket creates no problem, as on the lawn or on a cement, brick, or stone patio surface.