Vacation time

1. Check the weather forecast: If the planned weather is hot and dry, you need to focus on actions for watering. If the weather forecast says it will be heavy rain or maybe a storm, you might need to protect or move sensitive plants indoors or to a sheltered part of the garden.
2. Garden support team: Ask a neighbor, friend, or maybe a teenager looking for extra work to check out your garden regularly.
3. Document your garden: To help your garden support team find the right plants and to give them the care you want, it is very useful if you have prepared by documenting your plants and garden areas in the Gardenize app. You start by adding all your plants, with photos, names, and notes, and mark in which garden area they can find each plant. Combine it with “events” that tell the support team if they should water, fertilize or maybe trim specific plants at specific times. You can even ask your supporters to note what they have done and document it with photos, so you know that your garden gets the care you asked for.
4. Automatic watering: If you have a greenhouse of pots, that need to be watered more often than your support team can manage, I would really recommend an automatic watering system. There are several different on the market, and they can be timed and controlled in different ways. Some you set manually before you leave, others you can control via a mobile app.

• Put extra mulch on top of open soil is always a good idea. It helps giving good structure to the soil, and keeps the moisture in the ground, close to the roots where it belongs. If you have access to a fresh-cut lawn it is great as a cover, but you can also use leaves or other material from the garden. But be careful with weeds that might have seeds or roots that could spread in unwanted ways.If you have limited access to mulch, I suggest prioritizing edibles and annuals that are extra sensitive.
• Fencing is a good idea to keep animals like rabbits, deer, or wild bore out of your veggie garden where they might want to have a feast!
  Plants like kale, might even need a net to cover and protect it from caterpillars and other pests.
• Water accordingly, depending on the weather forecast. To make sure your potted plants have enough water before you leave, you can dip the full pot in a bucket of water and leave it there until there are no more bubbles. This way you now know the plant has as much water it can hold to start with at least.For plants in pots that require a lot of water you can leave extra water on a tray, but keep in mind it is not valid for all plants. For instance, Geraniums don’t like to have “wet feet”.

Help your helper!

Can someone help you take care of your garden when you are gone? Well, most gardens need attention at least on a weekly basis. So if you plan to be away longer than that, I recommend having some sort of support to look after it. And to help your helpers I really suggest go help them get it right.

1. Makes notes to give to whoever is looking after your garden. Either do it the traditional way with pen and paper, or you can easily do it with the support of Gardenize. The advantage of Gardenize is that you can add photos, which makes it a lot easier for the support to actually identify the different plants, and they can also log the work they do, so you have a record of it.
2. If you have a lot of different products, that should be used in different ways, it is good to mark them, so they are used in the way you intend. If they are not to be used at all, store them away, so no mistakes are made.