Consider wicking water into smaller pots while you are on vacations. (C) Kate Copsey
If you’re getting ready to leave the landscape for a few weeks of summer vacation, here are some things you can do to ensure the garden looks decent when you return.
Vegetables
- Deeply water the vegetable garden a day or two before you leave. Depending on how long you will be away, you might want to ask a neighbor or friend to water the garden once a week.
- Harvest everything that’s ripe or nearly ripe. Tomatoes can be picked green when a white star forms on the bottom of the fruit. Place the tomatoes in a cool, dry place, out of direct light, such as your kitchen counter. Do not put in the refrigerator.
- Share the produce with your neighbor or friend who will be watching your house while you are away. Allow the caretaker to pick whatever is ripe.
Flowers
- If you have veggies, herbs or flowers growing in containers, cluster the pots to make it easier for someone to water. Consider moving the containers to an area that gets dappled or east sun for the time you are away. Moving the pots out of full sun will reduce the watering needs.
- Deeply water annuals and perennials, especially if there’s been no rain.
- Cut back perennials and annuals by one-third to one-half. This reduces the amount of top growth the plant needs to support. The plants will bounce back within a couple of weeks.
- Consider a reservoir of water and wick system.
“The wick really should be in place before you plant, let alone go on vacation, but, if you didn’t think that far ahead, you can improvise,” said Kate Copsey, who has gardened in Indiana, Ohio, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia and now, New Jersey.
“Assuming you cannot lift and move the container you will need a decent- sized receptacle filled with water, preferably covered to reduce evaporation,” said Copsey, a Master Gardener and garden writer. Soak a few strips of an old towel in the water. Poke one end of the towel in the container as close to the plant as possible. Place the other end in the water.
Make sure the wicks reach the bottom of the receptacle so that they still work as the water level goes down, she said. “The wick absorbs water from the bucket and transfers it to dry soil in the container.”
You also could do this wicking technique with several plants ringed around a child’s swimming pool or other large reservoir.