Gardening expert gives 5 tips on how to look after your plants while on holiday

As the summer is in full swing, now is the prime time for many people to head off on a well deserved holiday. However, while you’re enjoying yourself at the beach, your plants are suffering from your absence.

If you’re a keen gardener or plant lover, leaving your plants for an extended period of time could reverse all the hard work you’ve put in to keep them alive and thriving. Plants require water, sunlight and various nutrients, and if you’re not there to give that to them, they can die which is a huge waste of your time and money.

So, to avoid any plant mishaps while you’re on holiday, I spoke to gardening expert, Joshua Houston at Household Experts who gave his five tips to ensure your plants are watered and cared for while you’re away.

1. Invest in an automatic watering system

Thanks to the rise in smart home technology, there are more smart and automatic gardening tools that can help care for your plants while you’re away. Houston recommends an “automatic watering system, as it allows you to lay drippers and pipes around your garden for water to be distributed,” or you can set a timer on your best garden hose to water your lawn in intervals.

Whether you place the system within separate plants or around your garden, these systems will turn on automatically at a specified time and will ensure your plant has enough water. Another good thing to invest in is a soil moisture sensor as it’ll monitor how much water your plant is consuming and if it detects that your plant has had a sufficient amount, it’ll tell the system to skip a cycle.

2. Move some plants outside

One of Houston’s top tips for keeping your plants watered while you’re away is to move your plants outside. “Take a look at the weather forecast in your area, and if there’s rain scheduled, make sure to put the plants in an outside area with plenty of access to the sun,” says Houston. While rain isn’t always guaranteed – no matter what the forecast says – this tip could be good for plants that have high water requirements.

3. Put your plants in the bath

Now, this next tip might sound strange, but Houston recommends using your bath to water your plants while you’re away. To do this, Houston says to “fill your bath with around 1cm to 2cm of water, before placing plants inside it. Make sure the plant pots have holes in the bottom so that the water can reach them.” If your bathroom doesn’t get much sunlight, you can also do this with your kitchen sink.

4. Use the leaking bottle trick

A budget way to keep your plants watered is to “take a plastic bottle and make little holes all the way round the bottom third,” Houston explains. “Then dig a hole near the roots of the plant for the bottle to be placed. Fill up your bottle and put it in the hole you have dug, before securing it with soil.” This leaking bottle trick allows water to be released slowly when the plant requires it, giving multiple days of water while you’re on holiday.

5. Ask a friend, family member or neighbour

When all else fails, the easiest way to make sure your plants are watered is to ask a friend, family member or a trusted neighbour to pop round and water your plants. Not only does this ensure your plants are taken care of but they can also check if there’s been any issues at your home while you’ve been away.