Holiday

All my plants are in pots now and will be left to fend for themselves for a week.
Week away is the middle of July.
Will they be ok to leave alone or will I need to get somebody in to water if the weather is dry for that week?

 

Depends, but I know not many of mine would be worth carrying on with after a dry week without watering.
I'm watering most daily now, even if it rains, often, unless a total washout, I would need to water.

 

I have plants that sometimes need watering twice a day if it is sunny and windy. Don't think any would last a week without watering either.

 

Hi,

One possible way would be to place all the pots together in a more shaded area and wind a soaker hose or spray/drip system over them and use a tap timer to come on for a short while twice a day.
You will still have time to test out such a set up for several days to ensure it works properly.

eg -

 

@landimad I would not leave them unwatered in pots for a week. You might get lucky, but do you want to come back to dead plants if you are not. Perhaps talk to a friendly neighbour or friend to see if they can help. I am doing that same thing over this last week for a friend who is on holiday.

 

You can even get solar powered drip systems with water from a reservoir so no mains connection to worry about.

Gardena Holiday Watering Solar-powered Irrigation AquaBloom Set

 

@ricky101 cool wouldn't mind one of those myself. Any experience of them and how good they are ?

 

We did try some simpler types many years ago, but no experience of todays modern systems.

Some good Ytubes for that system and more -

 

I have too many pots, troughs, hanging troughs, and other pots to start putting a dribble feed system. Nice though it looks, I fear that the system would fail me on day one of the hols.
Asking a friend, now can you suggest one as they have drawn ranks around us for a secondary unwelcome mat.
Not a soul has my trust since the move against us now, we had one planned but that has now evaporated due to the situation.
Again looks like we are to lose a lovely display for the sake of a bee who thinks she is the queen of the location.

 

One last suggestion , you could contact a local gardening services and see what price they would charge for calling in and watering things, might sound a lot, but what price your plants for the year ?

 

Hi,
if you group all pots together, perhaps even on large trays it would be an easy job for even an inexperienced person to pop in once or twice. If they are on trays they might be ok to stand in water for a couple of days at the time. You could advertise in local neighbourhood social media, shop notice board or similar.

Preparing water in buckets and adding instructions how many bucketfuls the plants will need, there is not even need to allow anyone in the house to access the tap.

I would hope that some local youth or anyone who doesn't mind extra cash would be glad for the job. Just don't tell in public your address or when you are planning to be away to avoid security risks. Only let the candidates in details once you have met and interviewed them.

Or, perhaps if you ask in a local charity shop, they could find a volunteer for the job for a donation.

Have a lovely holiday!