5 Tips for Keeping Your Garden Thriving While You're Away

Every year my family and I take a vacation mid-summer to go to our favourite place: the Canadian Rocky Mountains. But it always seems to happen that we get a huge heat wave while we’re away, causing stress to my beautiful garden plants. What were once beautiful and lush tomato plants and aromatic herbs are sad, wilted plants when I get home. Gardens take a lot of time and dedication (and money!), so it can be disheartening when they don't turn out the way you want.

Over the years, I’ve worked out a strategy that helps keep my plants alive and thriving until we get back, or at least until my ‘garden sitter’ can make it to our house. Nothing fancy, I used the knowledge I had from my agriculture degree and implemented some of the practices zone 3 gardeners will use in the spring and fall to prepare their garden for the seasons. Overall, I’ve found the two biggest challenges are keeping my garden watered and my produce picked. I've compiled a 5-step guide for garden care while on vacation.

How to keep your garden alive while travelling:

1.       Weed before you go.

Weeds are competitors for nutrients and water, so before you leave, make sure you remove any competition for those precious resources. Plus, if you pick them before you leave, you won’t come home to a 4-hour weeding job.

2.       Harvest anything that’s ready.

Anything ripe, or close to it, should be picked before you leave to avoid over-ripening. If you let the vegetables over-ripen, it signals to the plant that the growing season is over and it’s time to go dormant. It’s very similar to why we deadhead flowers; to keep them blooming all summer. If you end up leaving right when your plants are in the full swing of production, it might be best to ask a friend to come over and harvest for you if you’re going to be longer than three days.

3.       Water! Water! Water!

Right before you leave on your holidays, as in the night before or the morning of, make sure you water your garden A LOT! Of course, this step will depend on recent weather at your place, but you want to water enough that if Mother Nature’s taps suddenly turn off and a heat wave comes, your garden will survive while you’re away. If you’re going to be gone longer than 3 days, I highly recommend asking a friend to come over and water for you if it doesn’t rain while you’re away.

You can also use some DIY watering devices, like watering stakes you can put a clean pop bottle on, or build yourself a temporary drip line on a timer!

Usually established plants such as perennials will do just fine without extra watering while you’re gone, especially if they are mulched. I’ve taken a hands-off, tough-love approach to many of my perennials and honestly, they’re tougher for it. My peonies, lamb's ear, lilies, and hostas can all go a couple of weeks without a substantial rain now. However, this is something that needs to be worked towards. I wouldn't recommend leaving your plants without water for a week or longer for the first time while you're on vacation.

Garden sitter vs self-watering

Each option has benefits and can be a great solution for watering your garden while you're on vacation. But deciding which one is best can sometimes be a challenge.

Garden sitter:

A garden sitter is just as it sounds, someone who comes over on a schedule to 'sit' your garden for you while you're away. This can be a trusted friend or family member, or a hired service.

• Ideal for complex gardens that have different care requirements per area.

• Idea for delicate or edible plants, since they can monitor the plants actual health.

• Can provide personalized care and handle other garden tasks (weeding).

• But, they can be costly or unreliable.

Self-watering systems:

Self-watering systems are contraptions that are set up in the garden to allow the garden to 'water itself'. These can include timer drip-irrigation systems, olla pots, water globes, or water stakes.

• Ideal for low-maintenance gardening, drought-tolerant plants, or short watering intervals.

• Can be reliable when on a timer, affordable, and prevent human error.

• But, they require some set up and planning, some systems can be expensive, and offer no flexibility in plant care.

4.       Mulch.

Relating to the previous point, mulching your plants can have two positive effects on your garden: keeps weeds at bay and keeps moisture in. Since mulch prevents the sun from reaching the soil, it helps prevent certain weeds from germinating that use sunlight to ‘activate’ the seed. It also prevents moisture evaporation, keeping it in the soil where is most useful to your plants.

You don’t have to go and buy landscaping fabric or a bag of cedar mulch. You can mulch with lawn clippings, newspaper, or leaves from the lawn. These organic options can be left in the garden after your return and will improve your soil as they decompose!  

5.       Check the weather!

Knowing what’s in store for your area while you’re gone is important to help you plan appropriately. If it’s going to be overcast and rainy the whole time, you’ll probably be fine to leave your garden unattended. But if it’s going to be a scorcher, it’s best to organize to have someone come over and check your crops. You might even want to think about investing in shade clothes and timer irrigations if the weather is going to be extreme. Taking extra precautions like moving your container gardens to the shade will help them conserve water while you’re away.

I wouldn’t recommend leaving your garden for longer than three or four days, depending on the weather, without asking a friend to come over and water for you. Even if you’ve been training your plants to survive a drought, extreme weather can really take a toll on plants.

UPON YOUR RETURN

When you’ve returned from your fun-filled vacation, you’ll have groceries to buy, mail and laundry to catch up on, and a garden to tend to! Make sure you take a walk through the garden and try to get these four main tasks done the day you return:

• Pick and remove any ripe or overgrown produce and use it or compost it as appropriate.

• Water your garden if there hasn’t been a recent watering or rain.

• Check your plants for pests and bugs, removing any infected areas or spraying for bugs to reduce the spread.

• Weed! Those pesky plants have probably started to overtake your garden while you’re away, so it’s a good idea to get at picking them soon. The first two are the most important tasks upon your return, but the longer you leave the weeding, the tougher it’s going to be.

I hope this helps you prep your garden so you can have a stress-free vacation! Leave me a comment if you have other helpful garden tips.