With the summer holiday period creeping closer, and with your garden just starting to flourish, it is important that you know how to ensure that your plants will survive while you are away.
It is really easy to get caught up in all of your holiday planning and then suddenly realise that you have no idea just how you are going to ensure that you won’t be coming home to a dead garden when you return.
The reality is that your garden does depend on you for its survival and it doesn’t matter if you are going away for a few days or a few weeks, your plants are vulnerable the moment that you stop their regular watering.
But plants can absolutely stay hydrated even when you are not around, you simply need to know how to do it. If you have put loads of work into your garden, and you really love your plants, ensuring their survival begins with implementing some of the tips that we are going to share.
Getting Started
Regardless of which method you are going to go with, you should always kick things off by giving your garden a good soaking before you leave.
For container gardens, make sure that you soak the plants thoroughly, which means that you should let the water rise above the soil. Once the water has soaked into the container completely, do it again.
For the flower beds, you can give them a soak with your hosepipe. It is important that you allow the hose to soak the plants, at their base, for a few minutes, allowing the water to really sink in. If you want to be sure that the plants have been given a good amount of water, stick your fingers in the dirt and see how far the water has sunk in.
Techniques
When you have watered the garden and container plants fully, you can started implementing any one of these really easy techniques to keep the garden hydrated, no matter how long you are going to be away.
Mulch
Mulch is considered to be a real wonder for the garden, and it is quite easy to work it into the soil and in between the plants. When you mulch your plants, they will lose 25% less water throughout the day. In a nutshell, this means your plants will stay hydrated for longer after you have given them a soaking.
The success of this technique is going to depend greatly on the weather. Should the days be intensely hot, mulching alone won’t help the plants stay vibrant over many weeks. They could end up wilting or looking a little stressed out.
If you wish to use this technique, you should add some mulch as you usually would and then give it a test run. One way to ensure that the mulch is working is to check beneath the mulch to see how moist the soil is. If the soil is quite wet, your garden should be okay while you are away and if your garden is dry, you will need to add more water or more mulch. When adding more mulch, you don’t have to completely re-mulch, you can just add it around the plants’ roots.
Drip Irrigation
Setting up a reliable drip irrigation system is your next best option, and it is far simpler to set up than you think. Drip irrigation systems are also inexpensive with most coming as a DIY kit. Ideally, you should set this up at the start of the growing season as it can be a little difficult to lay all of your piping when your plants are already fully grown.
The irrigation system will ensure that the water released from the pipes goes straight to the roots of the plant rather than spraying all over the place. This method is fantastic because it will conserve the water usage and since you can put it on a timer, your garden will just get the amount of water it needs. Some of your more advanced drip irrigation systems can even sense how much rain has fallen, and then limit the amount of irrigation water needed on a particular day.
Rain Water Tank
Rain water storage tanks are wonderful things to have, especially in areas where water scarcity is a real issue. Rain water is free, and once you have a tank and the necessary pipes, you could attach an irrigation system or a soaker to it, and let the water run from the tank and into the garden.
If you opt for this technique, you will need to make sure that you treat the water to ensure that mosquitos don’t make your rain water tank their home.
Self-Watering Jugs
. This method is really easy and cost-effective, and it is ideal for smaller garden beds as well as container gardens.
To make this technique work, you will need a few plastic bottles, 2 litre bottles will do, and a knife. You will need to make a few holes in the bottles, making sure that they are really small. When that is done, you can place the bottle in the soil, next to the plant. The bottle should be put a few centimetres into the soil, and the top half should not be covered.
Once the bottle is in place, you can fill it with water before you go on holiday. The water will seep through the holes slowly, and it should keep your garden alive while you are away, depending on the number of plants you have.
You can use one bottle for four or so plants, and be sure to give extra attention to the plants that will need more water than others.
Plant hardy plants
This is not something that you can do at the last minute, but if you are living in an area that doesn’t get much rainfall, it might be worth your while to only plant those plants that can survive in the climate. Water wise gardening is not only beneficial for when you are away, but it will help you save water in the long run.
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