Now that a fair number of COVID-19-wary cocooners are wading back into the summer-vacation swing again, it raises the question about what happens to the yard while the caretakers are away.
If you’re going away only for a few days, most plants will be fine – especially in-ground trees, shrubs, and perennials.
Houseplants also can go at least a week – and often two – without care.
Outside potted plants and hanging baskets are a bigger concern... these can wilt after just a day or two without water, especially in a hot, sunny spot and especially when recently planted.
And although new summer annual flowers and veggies can go three or four days without rain or watering, they also can begin to suffer beyond that.
Planning to head out this summer? Here are some tips on keeping everything alive and well:
Hire a plant-sitter
In the “good ol’ days,” neighbor kids were often available and happy to water your plants every day or two for a few coins. This is still your best bet, but you may need to up the ante to cover a cell-phone bill.
Group the pots
If plant-sitting is out, group your pots and baskets together and place them on the ground in a shady spot out of the wind. This minimizes evaporation.
Give everything a good soaking before you leave, and you should be good for three or four days… longer if it rains.
Group water-sharing
If you’ll be gone more than a few days, group the pots in an area where you can rig up a lawn sprinkler to douse them.
Connect the sprinkler to an automatic timer to have the plants watered every morning or two for 15 to 20 minutes.
Systems are available now that let you control watering remotely with a cell-phone app.
Water by soak-up
If leaving the water on – even regulated by a timer – makes you nervous, scrap the sprinkler idea and set the grouped pots in a kiddie swimming pool or similar large container.
Sit the plants on old towels or blankets and fill the container with two or three inches of water.
The plant roots will soak up water through the pots’ drainage holes as needed. Don’t sit them in deeper water or you’ll risk rotting the roots.
Two or three inches of water should buy you a week, and if it rains a time or two, maybe even two weeks.
The only risk is if we get a deluge, the pool will fill enough to rot the roots.
Water by wicking
Another way to get water gradually and regularly to plants is by wicking the water to them.
Start with a bucket or large container and fill it with water. Then run fabric rope or rolled-up towels from the water source to the soil in the pot, ideally pushing the rope or towel to the bottom of the pot.
As the soil dries, it’ll wick moisture from the container.
Depending on the size of the water container, this should work for a week (more if rain fills the container).
Rig up an automatic system
Garden centers, home centers, and garden catalogs have drip-irrigation systems that let you run water through plastic lines to any pot or bed you’d like.
A supply line from an outdoor faucet can branch off into as many skinnier side branches as you need, then emitters that ooze water get poked into the line next to the plants.
Connect the whole thing to a battery-operated timer, and you can automatically control the time and duration of the watering.
This is easier than it sounds, and assuming it doesn’t malfunction or get chewed by rabbits, can water plants indefinitely.
In fact, if you have a lot of pots, an irrigation system can save you much watering work even when you’re home. Ditto for a vegetable garden.
Move plants inside
Another option for keeping potted plants from drying and frying is temporarily moving them inside.
They’ll lose less moisture to evaporation there, plus the lower light will slow growth and, as a result, water demands.
A few caveats: 1.) Give the plants a good soaking before you leave; 2.) Place saucers underneath the pots to catch any lingering drainage (your outdoor pots should have drainage holes), and 3.) Hose off or spray plants before taking them inside so bugs don’t hitch a ride.
Hold the fertilizer
You might think it makes good logic to give plants a good feeding before you leave, but that’s counter-productive.
A fertilizer boost will encourage growth and therefore water demand. Your goal is the opposite: slow things down until you get back.
Water-absorbing crystals?
Some people use water-absorbing polymers or “hydrogels” sold in stores under such brands as Soil Moist or Terra-Sorb. These little crystals get mixed into the soil and are supposed to absorb water and then release it when the soil around them dries.
Research has found them to work marginally at best and in at least one university experiment, not at all.
If you want to try hydrogels anyway, definitely do NOT add more than what’s recommended on the label. The crystals expand way more than you’d think, leading to an interesting (and messy) bubbling experience.
Mulch
You should have a two- to three-inch layer of bark or wood mulch over your garden beds, which should be enough to keep even new perennials and shrubs happy for a week or so, if you give the bed a good soaking before you leave.
An inch of mulch around annual flowers and a couple of inches of straw or leaves around vegetables can help them weather a full week without water.
If you don’t have mulch, it’s not too late to add it. Soak the beds first, then mulch.
Mulch slows evaporation and cools the soil, keeping moisture in the ground longer.
Pick the almost-ready vegetables
If you have vegetables that are approaching maturity, pick them before you go and give them away if you can’t/don’t store them or use them.
Some crops go from almost-ready to overripe in a matter of days, rendering them wasted by the time you get home a week or two later.
Don’t worry about the lawn
Even if you’re gone for weeks and your lawn goes dry and brown, it’ll be fine as soon as it rains.
Existing lawns can easily survive four weeks without moisture even after they’ve gone brown in summer. Don’t waste your water.
The exception is a new lawn. Young grass plants can die within a matter of a few days without water because of their under-developed roots.
Soak newly grassed areas before you leave and as soon as you get back (if it’s less than a week). Otherwise, you’re looking at rigging up a sprinkler with automatic timer, having a neighbor turn the sprinklers on and off for you, or rigging up a system that can be controlled remotely by app.
Plan for this next time
If you know you’re going away for a summer vacation or two, plan to minimize watering needs.
One way is to go with big pots. They don’t dry out as fast as smaller ones.
Also use thick, well insulated pots, such as foam or heavy concrete, which hold moisture as well as any.
Plastic pots are better at holding moisture than clay or terra cotta ones, which are more porous. If you use those, line the inside with a sheet of plastic to reduce evaporation loss. Ditto for hanging baskets.
Or invest in self-watering pots, which come with built-in reservoirs that let the roots soak up stored water as needed.
Finally, pick plants that are the most drought-tolerant, such as vinca, salvia, and wax begonias instead of ones that wilt quickly when it gets dry, such as impatiens, lobelia and fuchsia.
Have a nice trip.
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