Vacation Proof your Garden

Vacation Proof your garden

When you put work into your garden all spring and summer you want to see it grow and thrive. The fear of how your garden will survive on its own is a big one that stops many gardeners from taking a well-deserved vacation. With a little planning, you can vacation proof your garden and have fun without fear you will come home to devastation.

One of the most important parts of vacation proofing your garden is to apply plenty of mulch around your plants. Mulch helps prevent weeds allowing you to go longer between weeding your garden and keeping your garden from being overrun while you are on vacation. Along with keeping weeds at bay mulch helps trap water in the ground where your plants can soak up the later for nourishment. Use grass clippings followed by a more traditional mulch for a nice thick layer at a lower cost than buying bag after bag of mulch.

Watering your garden while you are away can have several options from hiring a local teen to putting your sprinklers on a timer. One of the most convenient ways to water your garden while on vacation is with a WiFi enabled watering device hooked up to your hose. This will allow you to monitor rain online and turn on your watering system from anywhere you have an internet connection.

Many gardeners fear going on vacation that they will come back to a garden overrun by pests. Taking advantage of natural predator pest control is the best way to give your garden an advantage while you are away. Put up a bug house to help encourage beneficial insect from parasitic wasps that will stop leafminers and cabbage worms to ladybugs to feast on aphids. Add hummingbird feeders to your garden to encourage hummingbirds to come to eat aphids, flies, and other gnats that can attack your produce. 

Enlist a neighbor or a local teen to watch your garden. The above tricks for vacation proofing your garden will cover most issues that arise but you never know if some unusual thing will happen in your garden. Having someone check on your garden for you will allow you the peace of mind that should your garden fall under the attack of a wild animal or struggle in the hot summer sun someone will be able to give you a call and carry out directions to help your garden survive. This can make it easier to enjoy your vacation.

My garden is almost always the first place I check when I get home from vacation. I like to see how things have grown {or not} and what things look like in the yard. With these easy to follow tips, you can vacation proof your garden and come home to a lush yard just waiting for your green thumb!

disclaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Rachel Teodoro. Thank you!