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Vacation season is upon us but for diehard gardeners, it’s often difficult to tear away from the garden. At the extreme, there’s the pal who has a one-acre suburban garden filled with sweeping perennials beds, vegetables and herbs, ornamental trees, exotic tropicals, countless containers, a sweeping lawn and a pond. Except for the grass, she took care of everything. Her husband one summer suggested they take a two-week vacation to Australia, but she declined. “Oh, I could never leave my garden that long,” she told me.
You, however, can take a break from your plants with a little careful planning. “Most things survive for a week,” says Stephanie Cohen, co-author of “The Nonstop Garden: A Step-by-Step Guide to Smart Plant Choices and Four-Season Designs,” (Timber Press, 248 pages, $19.95). “It’s on extended stays that you need a friend or neighbor to help you out.”
Cohen moves all her container plants to one spot so that anyone who waters while she’s away won’t miss a pot. “Otherwise, they have to have a keen eye and not all teenage children have this gift.”
This is where a quick demo to the uninitiated comes in handy, especially if you’re relying on your neighbor’s son or daughter to care for your posies. Case in point: another gardening acquaintance was furious when she returned from vacation only to find that her tomato plants were wilted beyond recovery. She had hired a high-school kid to water the vegetable garden. And, he did. He turned on the hose for a few minutes, sprayed all the leaves and that was it.
“You have to show them what you want done,” says Lauren Springer Ogden, author of “The Undaunted Garden: Planting for Weather-Resilient Beauty,” (Fulcrum, 293 pages, $34.95). “It’s about standing there and holding the hose but many people just don’t know how to water.”
Detailed written explanations along with how much to water and for how long can help keep you r plants healthy and keep your sanity intact on your return. Place a one-gallon bucket next to the faucet, too. For newly planted trees or shrubs, instruct your substitute gardener to soak each plant with the entire bucket once a week. Other than watering, you can hold off on having your stand-in gardener fertilize or remove spent flowers.
Ogden doesn’t grow “a lot of fussy things” in her Fort Collins, Colorado garden, where agave, native grasses and other drought-tolerant plants thrive. For those of us who grow water-chugging petunias, basil, cucumbers and other plants, Ogden insists that good prep work is necessary before we head for the beach or campground.
“Make sure the garden’s not stressed and full of weeds,” Ogden says. “Get it ready as if you were getting it ready for a party.” In other words, clean it up and give it a good soak so that by the time you return, you won’t have nearly the number of weeds or weed seeds blowing around.
Because she splits her time between Colorado and Texas, Ogden’s containers are planted with water-thrifty succulents and cacti, which spend the winter indoors. It’s the herds of mule deer that are the problem for Ogden, who is more concerned about their browsing than the lack of rain while she’s out of town. “The deer are a huge issue. I use [deer repellant] spray and put up black netting.” When she’s home, she usually shoos them away.
A sprinkler system and soaker hoses help Cohen’s garden get by when she’s out of town. “I extend the amount of times per week and the length of time it’s on when I’m gone.” When it comes to hot, dry weather, well-established plants, particularly trees and shrubs, are less of a concern to Cohen than perennials and annuals. For those things, she relies on soaker hoses and other watering devices.
“Gardener's Supply Co. [www.gardener.com] has these great nozzles that attach to large plastic containers, like milk cartons, that let them slowly drip the water into the ground,” Cohen says. “They are cheaper than ‘alligator’ bags that contractor's use for new installations.” Before you pack your bags, stop in your local garden center to check out digital timers for the watering system along with self-watering window boxes and containers and drip systems that can be placed on a timer. Or, save some clean empty milk cartons, place a few tiny holes tine bottom, place them next to a plant and fill them with water, which will help keep the soil moist.
Mow the lawn before you leave and consider hiring someone to cut it while you’re away. Invite friends and family over in your absence to harvest tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs and other edibles so nothing goes to waste. Regular harvesting encourages vegetables to keep producing so there will be plenty still there on your return. Now go pack those bags.
