Preparing Your Plants for Your Vacation

Summertime is peak vacation time, and you may have been dreaming about and preparing for your beach/mountain/spa vacation for months now. The bad news is, your garden is not looking forward to you being away for a week or two. Here’s what you can do to keep your plants healthy…

Give ‘em a good soaking and add mulch.

Putting one to two inches of mulch around all of your plants not only helps control weeds, it’ll also help retain moisture by putting a barrier between the soil and the hot summer air. In fact, mulched plants lose 25% less water than plants that aren’t mulched. So if you haven’t done it already, be sure you mulch before you leave.

What about plants in pots?

Containers dry out much faster than the ground. (Especially unglazed terra cotta pots.) If you don’t have a garden neighbor or pal who can water for you, move your containers to a shady spot, group them close together to conserve moisture, mulch the tops at least two inches deep, and give each container a nice, slow, thorough soaking right before you take off.

Feed ‘em.

Before you go, you also want to give your garden an extra helping of nutrients. If you’re going to be gone for a week or less, use a liquid fertilizer for a quick boost. If you’re going to be gone longer, use a dose of granular fertilizer. As always, follow the directions on the label.

Love your garden when you get back.

Once you’ve returned, show your garden some love and spend some time with your plants. Give them a good watering if they need it (and they probably will), then pull all the lovely weeds that have cropped up. Pinch off any dead leaves, then deal with any insect or disease issues.

Everyone needs to get away. Enjoy your vacation knowing you’ve given your garden every chance to stay strong and healthy until your return. And start making your list of water-wise or drought-tolerant plants for the garden next year.

Love, Anderson’s.