How to Make Sure Your Plants Get Watered While You’re Away

Let me just say that I’m probably the laziest gardener that anyone has ever known, despite my house filled with 80+ plants and back garden packed tightly like a forest.

I’d like to think I know a thing or two about creating the conditions for my plants to thrive when I’m away.
And It’s all about your soil-water retention or your soil’s ability to keep water. This varies depending on whether the soil you have is more sandy or has more organic matter.

If it’s sandy there’s going to be more space in between the particles in your soil and though it will absorb water, that water won’t stay for very long and disperses away, where as stuff like organic matter would absorb water like a sponge, releasing that water slowly.

While most plants need to drink water through their roots, there are quite a few that also need to drink water through their leaves.

1. PICKING THE RIGHT PLANTS
If you are the kind of person that likes to travel often and can’t be around weekly to water your plants, consider just keeping drought tolerant plants
OR if you must have plants that like water; make sure they’re growing in well lit terrariums that can be sealed up or closed; reason being is that you’ll be keeping that moisture in with that plant and it’s soil for much longer periods of time.

The only downside of having terrariums depends on what is growing in it may require opening lid and “airing out” all the gas it’s been storing. Though- this isn’t always the case, there is this legendary guy, David Latimer, who in 1972 put a few seeds in a big bottle with soil and water and has never had to water that terrarium since, the terrarium is teeming with life!

2. ROCKS, MULCH, & MOSS
Not only are these an amazing way to elevate the look of your potted plant, but it’s also great at slowing down your soil’s “Evapotranspiration” rate. This is the way your soil loses moisture due to evaporation from the soil or leave’s surfaces.

This isn’t necessary for cactus and succulents since they mostly hold onto moisture in their bodies; they don’t really rely on soil moisture retention. In some instances mulch could “work too well” and actually do them more harm than good. If you were to do this I’d suggest only using small pebbles and minimal moss.

3. OLLA POTS
This method particularly works great if you have a small planter in your space and no irrigation.
These clay pots are a very old technology used to irrigate plants in arid places like the American South West. All you have to do is bury the pot up to it’s lid in the soil where your plants are growing, periodically fill that Olla pot up and sit back as over the span of days, or weeks; the soil-moisture tension just the perfect amount of water from the pot into the soil and surrounding roots of the plants.

The only downside to using this method is dependent on whether your soil is sandy or porous, otherwise this method should work just fine!

4. CLAY SPIKES
This is a fairly recent invention.
This is very similar to how an Olla pot works; drawing in water from the clay spike portion by way of “soil moisture tension”, only this time you have to find a bottle of some sort to fill up with water and connect to your clay spike.
This is particularly great for potted plants so long as your soil isn’t sandy, else wise that water won’t be utilized properly.

5. DRIP IRRIGATION
Ideal for outdoor potted plants.
As a southern Californian that doesn’t have to worry about freezing temperatures messing with my irrigation, I’m a huge fan of using drip irrigation!
Once you know how to connect it to a source of water and regulate that water pressure, It’s like playing with legos or a train set. It’s truly an art-form and a lot of fun to build out.

The only plants I wouldn’t recommend using drip irrigation for would be turf grass and indoor plants simply because though it’s possible to do this, it’s very complicated and highly technical.

You can easily rig a drip line to your outdoor potted plants but you MUST avoid over watering your outdoor pots so they’re not swimming in water getting anaerobic diseases and breeding mosquitoes in that stagnant water. I once had that issue until I drilled holes at the bottom of my outdoor pots for water drainage and never saw another mosquito or smelled stinky rotten plant ever again.

Most importantly, if you can rig a timer to a hose bit, with a ball valve and have that valve open to just the right pressure you’ll never have to worry about watering your outdoor potted plants. Really the most maintenance you’ll do is occasionally looking to see if the drip emitters are properly attached to your pots.

Lastly, you know this one was coming:

6. GET A PLANT-SITTER.
Sometimes the best solution is just having a friend stop by your space and watering your plants for you while you’re away.
If you keep care instructions for your plants, it makes it easier for your friends to help on the fly.