Many are already on vacation. And many others who will start them in a few days. But when you have plants or gardens, leaving becomes an odyssey, especially if you have species that need regular watering. Fortunately, today we want to talk to you about how to water a garden on vacation.
If you have a terrace with a garden, a small garden or a large one, there are several options you can count on to maintain the water during the days or weeks that you are going to be outside. Do you want to know how to do it?
How to water a small garden
The most common is to have a small garden. Either because you live in a house in the city, because you have a balcony that you have converted into a garden or for other reasons. The problem is that, if you leave, that garden will be unprotected, and it will lack water if several days pass. That will cause that, on your return, you will see how you have lost what you liked so much and what you have spent a lot of time on.
But there are solutions, and not only in the sense of asking someone to water your garden while you are away, but you can also sign up some ways to water for small gardens that are going to be perfect.
Specifically, we recommend the following for a small garden:
Hydrogel
This is one of the best solutions when you have a garden with only a few meters of grass and even some pots or planters. The hydrogel can be found in various formats, from injector tubes to crystals, small beads ...
It works efficiently because its composition is based on water and nutrients.
How does it work? It is easy. You only have to bury these hydrogel beads in the ground. To give you an idea, you will need around 40-60 grams per square meter. This compound will decompose in the following days, so they will water the garden little by little.
If you place it in the planters or in the pots, you have to make at least four holes in the soil, about 10 centimeters in diameter, and fill them with the hydrogel.
Automatic watering kit
Another option for watering a garden on vacation is the automatic watering kit. It is very easy to install and consists of attaching a hose to a tap that will have a programmer. In this way, when the time comes, the tap will let the water flow and water with the hose for the time you set it.
You just have to leave the tap running with the controller attached to the mouthpiece and a hose attached. In this way, you will gradually water the garden.
To do this, you only have to opt for channeling tubes and / or drippers, which will help you distribute all the water. If you only open the hose and you already have the problem that it only gives water to part of the garden, but not to all.
And what if you have several parts to water? Well, if you only have one water connection, you could try using accessories that allow you to divide the water flow for different hoses. It is the simplest option, although you must control that when dividing that water, the amount necessary to water everything arrives.
How to water a large garden on vacation
If the extension of your garden is large, the options that we have given you before using hydrogel or an automatic irrigation system may be too short to give you the irrigation you need, and in these cases it is best to opt for other solutions that, although They involve a greater investment, it is also true that they are much better and in the long run they pay off (especially if you do not want to have to replace parts of the garden).
To do this, we recommend:
Complete automatic irrigation systems
These are much more professional than the previous ones that we have mentioned, because they require the installation of pipes that will be distributed throughout the garden, carrying the water through solenoid valves.
These, in turn, can be connected to a programmer that centralizes everything, to a source of electricity, or they go separately (ideal when you have a garden with several species and each of them requires specific irrigation needs). In addition, you must choose between a sprinkler irrigation or a drip irrigation (this being the most common).
Embedded
Some say that it is a method of watering the large garden, but we consider it more as an accessory, since it will be connected to an irrigation programmer and its objective will be to detect if it is necessary to start the irrigation or not.
For example, imagine that a summer storm falls and has already taken care of watering the entire garden. But the programmer says that the garden should be watered at a certain time. If you don't have a sensor, the system will activate and water, in many cases "drowning" the plants. But with the sensor, everything would stop because the garden would not need more water.
What to consider when preparing the garden for holidays
Now that you know the options you have for watering a garden on vacation, you need to take into account some details that, perhaps, you can overlook.
- If you have a garden with pots, planters and grass. You can perfectly match the solutions for water the plants on vacation (which we told you a few days ago) with these possibilities that we have given you now. They are not incompatible, and you can get better system efficiency.
- Be careful with the materials. It is important that you choose good quality materials to be able to use them; otherwise the only thing you are going to achieve is that there is a greater probability that it will fail or break, and if you are not at home, when you arrive you will take the unpleasant news that your garden has "died". Even if that requires more investment, it will be worth it.
- Protect the elements. This in the case of programmers, authorization systems, etc. We are talking about protecting the elements from inclement weather (the sun, rodents, the wind ...) since this way you make sure that it will not move from where it should be nor will it deteriorate. Of course, be careful when burying it because if you put dirt on it, it may not work and the place where the water should come out will be covered.
Do you have any ideas or your own way to water the garden on vacation? Can you tell us?