Watering baskets and containers while you are on holiday

Holidays, particularly in summer, are always a problem for gardeners. Those pots and baskets you have looked after will be in the hands of your neighbours or friends while you are away.
If you are planning more than two days away from home you need to make sure your plants are watered – don’t rely on rain! Some plants will recover if allowed to dry out a little but getting beyond the point where they start to wilt will damage most plants, even if they appear to recover; they will lose lower leaves, drop flower buds or lose lots of topgrowth and sprout from the base.
Tomatoes will develop blossom-end rot (sunken ends to the fruits) if allowed to dry out and wilt.
Ideally, get a friend or neighbour to do your watering but make things as easy as possible for them. Remember – if it is hot, they will have their own garden to water too, so make your garden as quick to water as possible.


Stand baskets on buckets
In the back garden, take down your baskets and stand them on buckets of water. They will absorb some moisture from these and, taken down from the brackets, out of the wind and sun, they will dry out less quickly. Do not take your baskets down from the front of the house – it is advertising that you are away from home!


Install a drip system
Micro-irrigation systems are now easy to find and buy and as simple or complex as you want them to be. The easiest are simply turned on at the tap – then the baskets can be watered while your neighbour is doing other pots. If you cant get help with watering you will need a watering timer so the job is done automatically. Test the timings a few days before you go away to make sure plants are getting enough water.


Place pots together
Group all (or most) of your plants together so the waterer does not have to traipse all over the garden to water.


Water
Make sure the compost is soaked before you go! Water in the evening and again just before you leave.


Fill cans
Give your neighbour a head start by making sure all your cans are together and filled to start with. Put some buckets of water nearby, if you have them, so cans can be refilled.


Pot plants
Small pots dry out far more quickly than large ones so pot up any small plants a week or so before you go away – the extra compost will hold more water and help avoid drying out.


Put pot plants in shade
Put pots out of the sun, in a shaded place to reduce their water needs.


Shade the greenhouse
Do not forget the greenhouse before you go. Put up shading net or paint on shading, water everything well and soak gravel on benches the night before you go and first thing in the morning.