If you enjoy tending to your garden every day, then going on vacation may make you feel a bit stressed. Even if you have a friend or a hired gardener who’s going to check on your precious tomatoes while you’re out of town, it’s fair to be worried that you’ll come home to rotting or dying plants.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to prepare your garden before heading out of town, which will help keep all your plants in tip-top shape while you’re gone!
To learn more, we spoke with Angie Kristoff, a Denver-based zone 6a gardener and the founder of the blog Angie’s Recipe Garden, and Corinne Beirne, kitchen garden coach and the founder of www.TheNourishedGarden.com.
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“It’s important to prep your garden before going away to help set it up for the best success while leaving for a trip, otherwise small problems can become big ones while you’re away,” Beirne tells Parade.
Below, Kristoff and Beirne share six things they always do before leaving for vacation—keep reading for their insights.
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Why Is It Important to Prep Your Garden Before Going Away?
“When we aren’t tending the garden daily (even just a quick check), we miss the signs the plants give us,” such as wilting or bolting, which “can lead to larger issues later,” Kristoff explains.
“Prepping garden beds is done to limit overall plant stress while we are gone,” she adds. “This also helps us enjoy our time away and we can ease back into gardening versus having to get right into the garden as soon as we get home.”
6 Things Gardeners Always Do Before Leaving for Vacation
1. Check the weather
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If the weather is going to be hotter than usual while you’re away, Kristoff recommends applying shade cloth to your garden, ideally by clipping the cloth to plant cages.
“The last thing you want is to leave and then have a heat wave come through and come back to bolted lettuce and wilted tomatoes,” says Kristoff.
“Shade cloth is important for both the soil and the plants themselves,” she explains. “If the soil is in direct sunlight, it dries quicker and can create unneeded stress to the plants. When the soil stays moist longer, this helps keep the roots cooler. Applying a shade cloth is an excellent way to ensure cooler soil & plants.”
2. Mulch the bed
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“Similar to adding shade cloth, mulching keeps the soil cooler,” Kristoff says. “I’ve found up to a 20-degree difference in bare soil vs mulched soil in my garden.”
She notes that in this case, you should not use wood chips in your mulching; rather, she recommends opting for burlap coffee bags.
“The burlap coffee bags are an easy, often free, way to cover large areas of the garden,” she says. “If using burlap bags, you get the added benefit of retaining water a bit longer! I recommend either cutting the burlap bag and using two layers; this gives more flexibility around the plants in the bed.”
You can also mulch with garden waste such as leaves and grass clippings. If you’re doing this, she says to aim for a 2-inch layer of garden waste.
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3. Harvest your crops
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Before going on vacation, “harvesting is important because leaving fruit, like tomatoes for example, for too long on the vine stops the plant from producing new fruit,” explains Beirne. “Harvesting as much semi-ripe or ripe fruit before leaving will signal the plant to continue focusing on new areas of growth.”
Kristoff concurs that if you’re going out of town, you should “not leave ripe veggies on the vine, as this “can cause other issues in the garden. Not only can they become overripe, some may burst or fall and rot. Ripe veggies on the vine or on the garden soil can attract pests, rodents, and reseeding.”
That said, what are you going to do with all these freshly harvested ripe veggies if you’re about to go on vacation!?
“If I harvest almost ripe veggies, I’ll consider taking them with me on my trip,” says Kristoff. This would work best if you’re going on a road trip and staying somewhere with a kitchen, of course. “All other harvested veggies either go in the fridge or to a friend. This is one of the easiest things to do before vacation that has the largest impact as far as reducing future issues.”
4. Weeding
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“Do not let the weeds take nutrients or spread while you are gone,” warns Kristoff. “Weeds in the garden are never good, but they seem to thrive after getting a boost of water and the perfect conditions we are giving our plants. Depending on the weed and how much time I have, sometimes I will cheat and just pull the weed flower,” as this ensures that it won’t bloom and spread its seeds.
“I always make sure I get any grasses out of my bed,” she adds. “Those seem to really thrive in perfect conditions. As you weed, this is a great time to water, and then apply the mulch.”
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5. Secure anything that could be damaged by wind
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Prior to heading out of town, Kristoff recommends asking yourself the following questions: “Do you have tomato cages that are not staked? Are your top-heavy plants like tomatoes or peppers taller than 1 foot? Do you have things in the beds that can blow around?”
If so, they should be secured, just in case heavy winds come through. This may involve staking down plant cages, securing shade cloths and burlap bags and adding supports to top-heavy plants and flowers.
“Before leaving for any amount of time, this step always gets done in my garden,” she says. “I have found my tomatoes and peppers that weren’t quite tall enough to need a cage three days ago had a growth spurt while I was gone and now are toppling over or wind-blown.”
Beirne agrees that “securing top heavy or climbing plants is critical,” noting that tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, climbing beans and climbing peas in particular can benefit from a trellis.
“Training them up a trellis not only prevents fragile stems from snapping from being too top-heavy, but it will also help prevent pests and disease while your away,” she says.
6. Give the plants a deep water reserve
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“Whether you have someone coming to water or sprinklers that will run, this tip is still essential,” explains Kristoff. “Watering deep allows the roots to receive a lot of water. The soil will be very moist, and this, along with the other tips, will ensure the plants have water to draw from for longer than just the surface watering.”
Before Kristoff goes away, she turns her hose to a gentle sprinkle setting and lays it on the ground in between a few plants at a time. After about a minute in one area, she uses her finger to feel the soil. If there’s still any dryness, she lets the hose go for another minute. Then, she repeats this in each section of her garden until everything has been watered.
You can even do this if you’ve applied mulch or burlap, by first running the hose beneath that layer to deep water the soil, and then separately wetting the mulch and burlap afterwards.
“When it comes to watering, think of your plants like little kids,” adds Beirne. “They need a predictable water schedule like a child needs a predictable snack schedule in order to thrive and stay happy.”
In Beirne’s opinion, the best way to keep your plants watered while going away is drip irrigation at the roots. “Set a timer early in the morning (and for hotter climates, automatically water again in the afternoon), so you don’t have to worry about it,” she says. “This gives the roots the deep soak they need to keep growing while your gone.”
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Sources:
Angie Kristoff, zone 6a gardener and the founder of the blog Angie’s Recipe Garden. Corinne Beirne, kitchen garden coach and the founder of www.TheNourishedGarden.com.Hence then, the article about going on vacation gardeners say to do these 6 things before you leave was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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