Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube Pinterest
Contact Us
Book a FREE Consultation

Looking after your garden while you're away

Have you got a summer holiday booked?  Lucky you!  The challenge can often be keeping your garden alive while you are enjoying your break.  Even if you have armies of friendly relatives and neighbours willing to pop in, there are plenty of things you can do to keep it going until you get back. 

  1. Water well before you leave. Preferably in the cool of the evening or early morning, give your garden a good drenching. If it’s been dry for a while, you may need to dampen the ground lightly to break the crust before the water will really soak in.
  1. Deadhead like a mad person before you leave. Removing any spent (or nearly spent) flowers will encourage the plant to keep growing new ones rather than decide it’s done its job and start to die down.
  1. Mulch. After you’ve watered, mulch your borders and containers with something to keep the moisture in and keep the roots cool and shady. Something organic is best but gravel or chippings work too.
dog watering
  1. Stand pots on trays of gravel and water the gravel well. If you don’t have large enough trays, even just grouping your pots together can help them shade each other and retain moisture.
  1. Make or buy drip feeders. Cut the bottoms off plastic bottles and pierce small holes in the cap to make your own. Bury the bottle near the base of a plant, cap pointing towards the roots, then fill the bottle with water.
  1. Take down hanging baskets and move them into the shade (remember that the wind can be very drying too). If the basket is made of something that won’t rot, consider sitting them in shallow water too.
  1. For your houseplants, consider standing them in the bath in just an inch of water. Move them into shadier parts of the house if they usually sit on sunny windowsills or in conservatories.
hanging basket
  1. Leave greenhouses and cold frames open to prevent them over-heating.
  1. Use water-retaining gel or granules when you plant. Although they don’t replace the need for regular watering, they can provide a useful boost for short-term breaks.
  1. If you must, invest in irrigation or sprinkler systems on a timer but please remember that tap water is a precious and limited resource. (Currently drip-irrigation systems are exempt from hosepipe bans but sprinklers are not).

Further reading this summer

Planning for dry weather:
Caring for your garden in dry weather
How to plan a drought tolerant garden

What to plant now:
August – Hydrangea and Hibiscus
July – Hemerocallis and Echinacea

Jobs to do in the garden:
Jobs for July
Jobs for August