How to make sure your garden survives your summer holiday

Going on holiday is never as stress-free as we might hope, especially for those of us leaving a much-loved garden behind.

Thoughts of wilting stems, crisp leaves and early death can ruin your time of relaxation. But it doesn’t need to be this way.

Here’s how to give yourself a break and ensure that your plants will be happy and healthy when you get home.

Applying mulch to your garden before you take off will stop the sun baking the soil surface.Credit: iStock

Get planning

While you can never plan for every contingency, if you regularly decamp for the summer it is worth keeping these absences in mind when choosing what to grow and how to grow it. Some plants will cope with weeks of neglect better than others.

Just by looking at a plant you can often tell how it will do on its own in hot and dry weather. Plants with large, fleshy, green foliage will likely need more irrigation than those with leaves that are small, thin, furry or grey. If it’s the more luxuriant look you’re after, installing an automatic watering system will immediately expand the list of what can thrive when you are away.

Add organic matter

Maximise the benefits of the irrigation you give your plants before you leave, and the rain that falls while you are away, by ensuring you have a healthy soil that water really sinks into. Unfortunately, this is often harder than it sounds.

After heavy rain, scratch below the surface of your garden beds and chances are that some are still bone dry. The best way to encourage water to penetrate deeply ­– and thereby make itself available to plant roots – is to add generous quantities of compost and other forms of organic matter. Not only will this improve your soil structure and water-retention capacity, it will also help improve microbial activity and fertility.

Apply mulch

Water well before you leave and cover the soil in straw, compost, woodchips or other mulch to help seal in the moisture. This will also stop the sun baking the soil surface, which can reduce fertility and stress plant roots.

The downside of applying lashings (at least 70 millimetres thick) of mulch is that light rain might not then penetrate it. Rest assured the upside of mulch is greater than missing out on some of the rain that might fall while you are away.

Save your edible beds

Without regular irrigation, vegetable beds quickly go from fruitful to fruitless. Tomatoes, beans and other hot-season crops originate from the tropics, after all.

While you can help your edible beds retain moisture by removing weeds, adding organic matter and mulching, none of this will entirely alleviate your plants’ needs for water during summer. Those without automatic irrigation systems should think about who they might entice to water while they are away ­­– in exchange for taking the ripe produce, perhaps.

Asking a friend to help out with watering your edible beds (in exchange for fresh produce) can be a good idea.Credit: iStock

Caring for containers

Potted plants are especially vulnerable when the weather is hot, and the pitfalls only multiply when you go on holiday. Containers warm up and dry out quickly, stressing all but the most resilient of plants. Pots can require daily hydration, especially if they are on an exposed balcony.

Plants in a healthy, moisture-retentive growing medium will be the most resilient. If it’s been a couple of years since your plants have had fresh potting mix, give them a new round of it before you go away. Either re-pot entirely or, if this is too unwieldy, scrape off the top layer and replace it with a fresh mix. Put the old soil in the compost.

Automatic watering systems and devices – including drippers, self-watering pots that allow plants to draw up water from a reservoir at the base, and slow-release watering spikes that can be poked into the soil – can all help your containers survive without you.

In addition, any pots that are small enough to be moved should be relocated to a shady spot where moisture loss will be slower. Large containers can be covered with a shade cloth for the same reason.

Precious indoor plants

Christmas holidays fall just when houseplants need us the most, as they’re actively growing and require regular drinks. As with outdoor containers, make sure your indoor plants are in a relatively fresh growing medium.

Water the plants well before you leave and place the containers of tropical and humidity-loving fare on a tray of water and pebbles (which stop the plants from actually sitting in water) so that moisture is available while you are away.

Move your houseplants away from windows – or partially pull blinds or curtains – to slow down photosynthesis and lessen their water needs.

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