10 Gardening Tips For Keeping Your Plants Alive While on Vacation
Traveling for Thanksgiving? Read these gardening tips (and read the rest of our blog for more!) to keep your plants healthy even while you’re on vacation:
1. Water your plants before you leave
Plants can live for a few days without water if it’s not too hot. So watering them right before you leave can be enough if you’ll just be gone for a long weekend.
Note: I’ve just added, “water plants” to our vacation prep list to help you and me both.
2. Keep your plants cool
The hotter it is the quicker water will evaporate and the more of it your plants will drink. Move outdoor potted plants into the shade and move indoor plants away from your sunniest windows. In the winter, turning your heat down so the air in your home is is less dry while you’re gone will also help.
3. Trim your plants
Apparently flowering plants want more water, so trimming flowers and buds off with make them a bit more water efficient while you’re gone. It’s hard to say how much water this saves though. Unless the plant flowered like mad I would have a hard time cutting off new buds. Though I’d be okay with trimming flowers that will die while I’m away anyway.
4. Use a wick system
At my daughter’s school they us an urban gardening technique that puts a container that can hold water beneath the planter boxes, with wicks that send the water up into the plants above.
You can rig a simple version of this up at home. Find a wick—twisted up yearn or a strip of cloth will work—and bury it about 2-3 inches into your plant’s well-watered soil. Then put the other end into a bowl or bottle of water. Be sure it goes all the way to the bottom of the water source so it can soak it all up.
5. Set up a drip system
Are you ready for this high-tech system? Water your plants really well. Then fill a plastic bottle (your average disposable water bottle will do) to the brim with water and turn it upside down inside your plant. Instant drip system! If you find dirt clogs it up you can tie something like loose cheesecloth or any kind of mesh over the spout.
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