Is your garden ready for your holiday?

The holiday period is upon us and amid all the excitement you may feel slight trepidation about leaving your garden. You may well have spent the last few months carefully planting, watering, nurturing, pruning and feeding your garden all in the hope that at this time of year it reaches it’s peak and you can enjoy the fruits fo your labours………literally!

But we all know how long it takes to prepare for your holiday. All those endless
decisions about what to pack and dealing with those last minute work emails. Do we ever take as much time, thought and planning when preparing our garden for a holiday?

Thank goodness you can follow this simple advice to get your garden ready
for your departure….

• deadhead flowers, mow the lawn and give the borders a good weed a few days before you go .
• a good layer of mulch on your borders will help to keep the moisture in.
• give container and planting areas a really good deep water the night before you leave.
• sink containers into the ground or put them in trays or saucers with some
water, this is not ideal over the long term but absolutely fine for a holiday.
• don’t leave pots in full sun where they will dry out too quickly, move them
into a more shaded area.
• use water globes to keep containers watered, great for indoor and outdoor pots. You can make your own water globes, it’s a great way to recycle any plastic or glass bottles you use in the house.
• don’t let all your fruits and berries that are ready go to waste, pick and freeze them before you leave.
• ask a neighbour to water anything that cannot leave the greenhouse but
you really need to remember to open those vents!

Jo Manfredi Hamer is an award winning garden designer

www.jmhgardendesign.co.uk