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Photo Credit: Lane Greer

Before you go on vacation, give your plants a good long drink.

Here’s my situation: I have lots of established trees and shrubs in my garden, but all the perennials and annuals are new. Many of the perennials are valuable, hard-to-find plants that I don’t want to lose. We’re new to the neighborhood and don’t know any other “plant geeks” who can look after the garden while we’re away.

My solution is to prioritize plants – in this order:

Trees and shrubs. Why save them first? They’re more expensive to replace, and they form the backbone of the garden. Fortunately, I don’t have any newly planted trees or shrubs, so I’m in good shape there. But if I did have “newbies,” I’d water them THOROUGHLY before leaving town, leaving timed sprinklers on for hours at a time. (Speaking very generally, trees and shrubs need about an inch of water every week.)

Perennial flower beds. Like shrubs and trees, these are more expensive to replace than other plants, and I’ve focused on adding these to my garden this year. There are too many flower beds to ask someone else to water, so what can I do? Just as with the trees and shrubs, I’ll water these plants thoroughly before I leave town. It takes two to three days to water everything, so I’ll start watering three days before leaving town.