How to care for and water plants while on vacation. Explore several easy to use methods to keep plants alive without having to hire a plant sitter.
Taking care of things at home while you are away on vacation is something we have to prepare for. Arranging for someone to care or water your plants and garden while you are away is not so easy. Maybe hire a house sitter to come in and water your plants? Or ask a relative to drop by your house? Sometimes there’s a fee involved. For people that do not have this easy option there are plenty of products that care for our plants while we enjoy our vacation.
There is an array of self watering containers that can hold enough water to quench your thirsty plants while you are away. Self watering planters are also time savers for gardeners too.I use to have to water my container plants almost every day. But with a self watering planter I don’t have to because they have a reservoir that holds extra water.
Self Watering Planters and Systems That Save Time Watering Thirsty Plants
These are some of the products I use – Not only useful time savers, but they save my lovely plants
Spikes
Spikes are easy and simple to use. Made of terracota, glass, or plastic, they’re easy to use as they simply get inserted into the soil.
Personally, I use terracota spikes. These can can be inserted into the soil, and watered with an attached plastic bottle, glass globe or wine bottle. I’ve used a 22oz plastic bottle, and found this enough to water the container plant for up to 4 days.
Take into consideration the size of the pot and how many plants you have if you are going to use this method.
Terracotta watering spikes work through the process of osmosis.Terracotta is a porous material that prevents water from pouring out of the bottles when plant watering spikes are inverted. The water seeps out slowly, keeping the soil moist. The wetter the soil, the slower the seep and viceversa. The proper amount of water is dispensed.
Before inserting the stakes into the container, water the soil. Otherwise when you first insert the stakes the water will quickly drain out of the bottle.
Insert the plant watering stakes deep into the soil so that the openings are flush with the soil. To refill the water bottle simply lift it up and then reinsert it into the stake. No need to take the stake out.
Watering globes are also known as watering bulbs or aqua globes come in a variety of designs that add to an indoor garden decor. They’re regularly used to water house plants and are useful for taking care of plants while you’re away as well.
Set it & Forget it Garden System
For those of us that enjoy growing our own salads or beautiful flowers indoor year-round, there are a few options that are pretty much a ‘set it and forget it’ type of gardening. These require minimal maintenance once you plant the seeds in a special automated gardening container.
This method is also excellent for small space gardening.
For example, the Click and Grow gardening system uses what the manufacturer calls ‘smart soil’ and seed pods. Click and Grow is an automated plant container that monitors everything the plant needs for optimal growth with little care once you plant the pods. Take a look at how it works:
Click and Grow focuses on indoor gardening and has types of containers – the Smart Garden 3 and the Smart Garden 9. The difference is how many plants can grow in the plant container. In addition, they also have what they call the Smart Garden 27, which comes with a stand to stack the smart containers.
This systems pretty much control everything the plant needs – temperature, light, water. Click and Grow claims that their system needs 95% less water than traditional agriculture in addition to a faster growing cycles. The seeds are contained small pods prepped with organic soil. This is what the pods look like:
The pods contain seeds for growing flowers and herbs for salads as well as other herbs used for cooking, like Rosemary. However, they also sell what they call The Experimental Plant Capsule which you can use to grow whatever plant you want. Just add the seed in the soil pod and click in the refill capsule. With this system everyone has a green thumb.
Another automated gardening system is Aerogarden. This self sufficient plant growing system offers containers where you can grow 24 plants
Just like the Smart Garden above, Aerogarden is also super easy to use. With either system you can simply set it up before your vacation, and come back to harvest a salad.
Just insert the pre-seeded pods in the Aerogarden, add water, and the patented, specially formulated Liquid Nutrients. Most plants germinate within 7-14 days, are ready for harvesting in 4-6 weeks, and will keep producing continuous harvests for up to 6 months or longer.
Micro Drip Irrigation kits
A Drip irrigation systems are the ultimate time saver for watering indoor plants. Not to mention that its also a great solution for gardeners with several plants to care for while on vacation.
Micro drip irrigation kits come with everything you need to water containers and hanging baskets as well.
A good irrigation system should come with a timer, sprinklers, tubing and fittings and a pressure gauge.
Drip irrigation systems control the water output. You can regulate it so that your plants aren’t over-watered. So besides being time savers a drip irrigation system for containers and hanging baskets also save money.
Self Watering Planters
Depending on the size of the reservoir, self watering planters can last several days, making them ideal to keep your plants alive while you are away from home.
Some self watering planters use a wick that allows the thirsty plant to soak up the amount of water needed. Further preventing over watering.
Hope this helps you save time & your garden when you’re on vacation or away from home.
Happy savings, TaLis
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