Plant and Garden Care During Summer Vacation

Posted by Jamie McIntosh Jun 10, 2009

I cut back on my edible plantings this summer, because I know I’ll be on vacation during some of the peak harvest times. Who wants to tend to a vegetable garden all spring, only to leave the fruits of your labor to the squirrels and rabbits? I hope that between a mixture of good luck, good neighbors, and good technology, I will still have a thriving garden to come home to after my travels.

If you’re traveling this summer, make a small investment in one of my favorite tools, a programmable irrigation timer. A garden hose timer turns your water on and off according to the duration and days of the week you program into the unit. I move my containers under the sprinkler zone, and set the garden hose timer to run for about an hour every other day, from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. Gardeners may like this system so much that they use it even when not on vacation! After all, who really waters their gardens at dawn, like the experts recommend?

If necessary, supplement the sprinkler timer with a plant sitter. You may barter house sitting, plant sitting, and pet sitting with a neighbor. If your garden care is complex, hire a neighborhood teen to provide the care. For a reasonable fee, a hired plant sitter should provide weeding and perhaps one or two lawn mowing services, to keep the house from appearing vacant. It’s always exciting to come home and see how much the plants grew while I was gone!