Watering Outdoor Plants While Away: How to Keep Them Alive

How to water outdoor plants when away for a week or two

First, we’ll talk about keeping your containers watered while you’re on vacation for 1-2 weeks.

And then, we’ll cover how to water larger areas like garden beds or large groups of potted plants.

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How to water outdoor potted plants while on vacation for one to two weeks

If you have plants in containers, self-watering spikes for outdoor potted plants are an excellent choice.

Simply insert a wine bottle filled with water into the terracotta spike, and the water releases slowly and steadily while you’re away.

You can also use these when you’re home. They supply a steady stream of water to your plants and need to be filled about once every seven to ten days.

Depending on the size of the pot, you may need to use more than one spike.

My favorite tools for this setup:

• Plant Nannies
• 750 ml wine bottles
• Trowel, if you have hard soil

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Steps to follow:

1. Water your containers thoroughly.
2. Take the plant watering stakes out of the box and soak them in a sink of water for two hours.
3. Take a stake out of the sink and gently press it into the wet soil about two to three inches from the center of the pot. If it’s hard soil, use a trowel to make the hole, so you don’t break the plant stake. They can break if you’re rough with them.
4. Fill an empty wine bottle with water (Perrier 750 ml water bottles also work well).
5. Insert the bottle into the wine bottle watering stake. Work quickly to avoid losing too much water.
6. Alternatively, you can try removing the stake from the soil and putting it on top of the full bottle. Then flip the whole thing over and put it back into the soil. I find this tends to loosen the soil around the stake, so I do it the first way.
7. I also fertilize the plants right before I leave.

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Prices last updated on 2023-10-22 at 05:25

How to keep outdoor plants watered while away for one to two weeks: large areas

Best for: watering garden beds or large groups of outdoor containers

This setup can work well in a pinch if you don’t have time to set up drip irrigation or soaker hoses (see below) and you need to water a large area.

There are two types of sprinklers that I recommend: rotary sprinklers and oscillating fan sprinklers.

Rotary sprinklers

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These are usually best for round or triangle-shaped areas.

Oscillating fan sprinklers

Oscillating fan sprinklers work best for a large square or rectangular area They also work well for pots that are lined up in a row, along a wall, for example. I have a number of pots set up along the base of a retaining wall, and this setup works like a charm.

Since fan sprinklers don’t put out a lot of water, you may need to run them several times a day.

My favorite tools for this setup:

• RAINPOINT Wi-Fi Irrigation Controller
• Gardena aquazoom fan sprinkler
• Orbit impact sprinkler

Steps for using a sprinkler and timer setup:

1. Test and set up the sprinkler a day or two before you leave. Want to control your sprinklers remotely while you’re gone? Read my review of the RainPoint sprinkler timer with wifi hub.
2. Set out some empty containers to catch the water and measure how much the sprinkler is putting out each time it runs.
3. Make sure it’s covering everything it needs to, and it’s putting out enough water for your plants.

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Prices last updated on 2023-10-22 at 10:25

Source: https://gardencourte.com
Categories: Outdoor