Nursery owner constructs huge hanging basket !

We're going to have get a bigger watering can! Nursery owner constructs huge hanging basket weighing 5.5tons and containing 2,500 plants Dusty Beesley, 81 owns nursery in Ravenstone, Leicestershire Has to be hoisted 20 ft into the air in the bucket of a digger to tend the plant By SARA SMYTH PUBLISHED: 19:16 GMT, 18 July 2013 | UPDATED: 19:23 GMT, 18 July 2013 Coming up roses: Proud Dusty Beesley claims his hanging basket is the biggest in the UK Nursery owner Dusty Beesley, 81, has challenged the country's ambitious gardeners to top his mammoth hanging basket, saying: 'If anyone can come up with anything bigger then I'd like to see it.' Mr Beesley threw down the gauntlet today when his 5.5-tonne plant was hoisted into the air. The hanging basket contains more than 2,500 plants and measures 21 feet wide and ten feet deep. The keen gardener, who owns a nursery in Ravenstone, Leicestershire, started making giant arrangements in 2001 to celebrate his golden wedding anniversary with his wife Betty. If Mr Beesley wants to tend the basket he has to be hoisted 20 feet into the air while standing inside the bucket of a digger.  To create the floral arramgement, he buried an H- shaped girder in the ground which he buried in four metres of concrete. The basket is made from steel greenhouse hoops suspended by chains held together with a central pin. Mr Beesley said: 'When you're inside It does move and it gives a funny sensation. Its a bit like being at sea. 'I tried to get the basket in to the Guinness Book of World Records but I was told they don't do records for these. 'So I've decided I'm going to claim the UK record because I've not heard of anyone who's got a bigger basket than mine.' The basket has raised almost £20,000 for charities over the years, as people pay to guess the number of flowers in the basket. This year money will go to prostate cancer charities. The giant basket is planted up with begonias, fuschias, geraniums, marigolds and pansies and is watered by an automatic sprinkler system twice a day. Flower power: The 5.5-tonne basket is supported by a beam that has been buried in four feet of concrete. The basket is made from steel greenhouse hoops suspended by chains Full-time job: To tend to the plants, Mr Beesley has to climb a ladder, or be hoisted up in the bucket of a digger My basket is bigger than yours: Dusty Beesley challenges other gardeners to to beat what he claims is the largest floral arrangement in the UK __._,_.___ . __,_._,___

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