Garden Tour- Overgrown Garden
Garden Tour- Post Clean-up
Low Maintenance Gardening
Planning for summer vacation especially if you have children can be a challenging task. There is always a long list of checklist starting from deciding the vacation places to finding care team for your pets. Finding a pet hostel might be easy but finding a gardener for your lovely plants can be almost impossible. Yes, you can ask your friends to take care of your garden, but not everyone has a green thumb.
Here are some tips to care for your green babies while you are away.
Set-up an Efficient Watering Plan
Depending on where you live or the time of the year, your watering plan will change. At peak summer times, you will have to increase the number of times you water your plants. However, it is not a good idea to water in the afternoon as hot water from the hose might burn the plants and also water evaporates quickly when the temperature is high. Deep watering is a key here. Instead of watering multiple times throughout the day for shorter periods, it is better to water fewer times for longer periods. Let those roots get hydrated well. You can minimize water usage by starting your sprinkler early in the morning before sunrise or late in the evening after sunset.
What Type of Watering Equipment to use?
There are different types of types of equipment available in the market. You can use a soaking hose, drip irrigation method, or sprinklers. Drip irrigation consumes less water compared to other methods. You can save money on water bills. Also, if you live in a region where summers are harsh, the city might put limits on outdoor water usage during summer months to conserve water.
If you have a large backyard, sometimes it can happen that the house might have limited capacity to support either drip irrigation or a sprinkler system. If you are into container gardening then you can opt for drip irrigation. If you have your containers scattered all over the garden along with the other in-ground plants then you can use tall sprinklers. Tall sprinklers cover a large area and you need only a few of them. You can adjust your container position depending on the plant’s water requirement.
What Type of Watering Equipment to use?
There are different types of types of equipment available in the market. You can use a soaking hose, drip irrigation method, or sprinklers. Drip irrigation consumes less water compared to other methods. You can save money on water bills. Also, if you live in a region where summers are harsh, the city might put limits on outdoor water usage during summer months to conserve water.
If you have a large backyard, sometimes it can happen that the house might have limited capacity to support either drip irrigation or a sprinkler system. If you are into container gardening then you can opt for drip irrigation. If you have your containers scattered all over the garden along with the other in-ground plants then you can use tall sprinklers. Tall sprinklers cover a large area and you need only a few of them. You can adjust your container position depending on the plant’s water requirement.
Optimally Positioning the Plants in the Garden
Different plants have different requirements. Before leaving for a vacation position the plants in the best possible way. The plants that require less watering can be placed away from the sprinkler. You can keep some indoor plants away from the water source as they require less watering but under the shade of big trees. Some plants prefer moist soil. In that case, submerge the plant partially under the soil such that the plant gets water from the bottom. You can also plant the indoor plants directly into the soil if you are going on a vacation for a long time, like for a few weeks or so. This really helped me a lot when I went on vacation for almost two months. By doing this not only I saved those plants, but also they. grew a lot pretty quickly. If there is no natural shade in your backyard, then you can use a shade-cloth or an old bedsheet to cover the delicate plants. If you have access to a greenhouse then move the light-sensitive plants to the greenhouse. Other than that, if you know your garden well, you will know what part of the backyard gets how much sunlight. You can move the plants to safer parts of the garden.
Cover the Roots With a Layer of Mulch/ Live Mulch
You can cover the roots of the trees and plants with a layer of mulch. Mulch slows down the evaporation of water and keeps the soil moist for a longer time. It also prevents the growth of weeds to a certain extent. You can use grass or wood chips as mulch. But there is one way to mulch your garden which is using live plants as mulch. I plant some melons of creeping vines in my garden. These vines hold on to the water by preventing evaporation.