Summer holidays and plot care

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

With things like "Tomatoes" which need a bit of a strict watering regime, I always grow undercover, and have for the last few years used "Self Watering Systems" at final planting out time, once the resovour filled, last's several days.

"Chillie's" which are situated in the GH get a good old dousing before I/we set off, but I do "Treat em mean to keep em keen" and never rewater till the compost starts to dry out!

Also the outside stuff (Brassica's, Sweetcorn, Tattie Bags, raised beds etc, etc) get a good old soak before we depart.

like "Alldigging" said, the perfect "Holiday" for me is several day's spent purely on the plot, or pottering about at home which I do manage to get two weeks a year at!

But I have a family to please! but we never go away much over 7 to 10 days!

All round! Everybodies happy! including my plants!

[Bumberling Brian]

I have set up an automatic watering system for the GH which uses a combination of soaker hose and mist sprayers. For my summer Hols I check the long range forecast and then hope that I have adjusted the timers to water correctly. This worked for me last summer and I came back to a crop of healthy tomatoes , chillis etc. However this only works when as long as no one turns of the outside tap ( like they did at Easter )


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[Mr Gardener]

I've only gone away once during peak season (August) and I arranged for my neighbour to look after the greenhouse and outdoor crops. I'd set up an irrigation system in the greenhouse so just needed him to turn the tap on for a couple of minutes twice a day to water the beds and then attach the hose to the irrigation system.

I checked in probably every second day via text and was reassured that everything was fine. I rewarded the neighbour with a massive box of airport chocolates and some wine, which were delivered as soon as we got home.

I then got out back to find that everything was starved and wilting and all the fruits and flowers had died back to virtually nothing.

We'd also asked the neighbour to feed out cats, which to his credit he did (they weren't visibly malnourished at least) but it'd have been nice if he'd removed the rat and two birds the cats had brought in, or at least moved them somewhere they weren't baking in the sun... if I'd been a fisherman I might have appreciated the maggots, as it was they (and the smell) were a most unwelcome surprise to return home to.

Not been away since...!

[Dorothy rouse]

Are you still speaking to your neighbour I wonder?

[Mr Gardener]

Are you still speaking to your neighbour I wonder?

Yes, I think it I just about am, I'll never trust them with the veg again though!

[Ja9]

We go away with the kids for a week in the summer holidays ,self-catering, and I take as much produce as I can with us.A neighbour ( with whom I have a reciprocal arrangement)waters the greenhouse daily ,but I fret that the door can't be left open ,and waters the veg plot if it's very dry.She is frightened of chickens so another neighbour checks on those and collects the eggs.Last year we came back to a beautiful raspberry and almond cake that the second neighbour had made from our garden!

[sparrow100]

I am very lucky - my plot neighbour will always help out if my Mum can't get there when we are away. I try to make sure my plants only need doing once or twice a week, though now I have a greenhouse I am not sure whether I will get away with that.

[hellybore]

I have just been away for a week and my plot neighbour looked after my greenhouse seedlings. This week he is away so I'm looking after his polytunnel. Has worked out quite nicely. Mind you it's much sunnier this week so I've got to do a lot more watering!

[Methe]

I have no idea what I'm going to do Tbh. I go away last week in July first week in August and then again for a week in September. I will just have to hope that it rains the whole time I'm away

At home I have a friend who comes in and waters the garden and looks after my pets. I pay her well.

4 years ago we went to Turkey for a fortnight in June and I asked my mother in law to come over every couple of days and give the garden a good drenching. I offered to set up the sprinkler but she said no, she would be fine.

We got the 0100 flight from dalaman and got in to brum around 0430.. At 0530 I was ripping out all the desiccated plants quietly sobbing in to my cup of tea. Gutted doesn't come close..I lost a whole wheelybin full of plants. Never again... Us gardeners are said to have green fingers.. My mother in laws fingers must be shrivelled and black.

[Alison]

I solve the problem by avoiding going away for more than a couple of days in sumner - everywhere us full of kids anyway and costs more


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[WendyC]

We have to go in peak season due to work but I have great neighbours who will come and feed the cats and water, especially the greenhouse. I always say please pick and eat anything that's ready. Last year I got a text asking if I minded them giving away some cucumbers as they couldn't eat any more!
On the plot I tell people around me when I'm away and ask if they could keep an eye. One year there was a lot of blight early in the season, so I ask them to watch out for blight on the potatoes. On my return, as I had suspected, blight had struck, but a fellow plot holder had removed all the top growth and bagged it all up, thus saving my crop. I was very grateful.