Vacation Care for Plants

You’ve got the car packed, the pets at the kennel and your kids are ready to go.  But what are you going to do about all those beautiful containers?         

Here are a few tricks that can help.  Move your containers to a shady spot. This will slow down the moisture loss so your plant sitter needs to make fewer visits.  It also increases the odds that your plants will survive.

Invest in a simple drip irrigation system and timer.  More and more affordable products are on the market these days.  These systems can also save you time when you are home caring for your plants.

Or, make your own self-watering system with a 5-gallon bucket and strips of absorbent material to serve as wicks.  Place the bucket amongst your containers.  Run the fabric wick from the 5-gallon bucket into the soil of your container.  As the soil dries the water will move from the bucket of water into the container to moisten the soil.  Test out the system, purchased or homemade, before you leave for vacation.  You want to make sure everything is in place and working 

A bit more information:  Regular travelers, busy individuals or gardeners looking to spend less time watering should consider using self-watering pots.  These containers have a reservoir at the base of the pot to hold water for the plants to use for several days to two weeks.  Make sure the pot has a weep hole at the top of the reservoir.  This allows excess water from rainy periods and overwatering to spill out of the pot instead of drowning the plants.

Tags

watering maintenance irrigation

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