How do you handle long vacations? My wife wants to take a two week vacation June 21-July 3, and I have no choice in this matter. I trust NO ONE to care for my garden.
What do you do?
Automated irrigation.
There isn’t enough moisture in Maryland for 2 weeks?
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There could be 7 inches or not a drop. The ground plants should be fine.
More worried about rotting harvests and spray schedules.
Plus container plants.
This is veggies too, not just fruit.
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Got it…
Last summer, our pet sitters failed to water my outdoor container plants as promised. I lost ~50% of them.
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All my in-ground and container plants receive automated irrigation.
I’ll second the auto irrigation. My wife and I go for at least two weeks in the summer. I use a well draining potting mix in all my container plants so if they get over watered it’s not a problem. Just make sure and test it out before you leave. As for veggies the best I can say is to try and find someone to pick and put in your fridge, let them go, or adjust your planting schedules accordingly.
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The only thing really dicey will be the spring/cool season veggies.
Lettuce, peas, and broccoli. They may be totally done, or I could literally miss the entire harvest, depending on spring weather.
Planting a bit later rarely works, as our summer heat builds very quickly after that.
How about earlier and use a frost blanket or low tunnel?
That may work.
What’s wrong with taking the two weeks in December, January or February?
Or…let her go alone in June…and if she comes back in July then all’s well that ends well.
I typically take a week in October, and occasionally one some other time of the year.
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Kids are in school.
The last time I took that much time off I used water timers and water hoses out in my garden. I set it for so much time per day and turned the spigots on. I came back and everything looked great.
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Happy wife, happy life!
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Try : 'Darling, I love you so much and nothing in my 
comes above you. This year, let’s do something different this year. I want to stay home and you can go on holiday. Bearing in mind that nothing comes above you"
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It’s MY parents who are paying for the first week’s trip…but she wants to stay gone an extra week to do other stuff.
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My brother, it s a moment every gardening spouse dreads but for the future of gardening spouses every where , you my friend are going to have to do what no other enthusiast has done. Go where no grower has ever been, fight for your roots.
Basically all am saying is choose the plants !
Outdoor container plants are easy to integrate into a drip irrigation system. I keep lots of container plants alive this way with no worries. I really enjoyed the peace of mind when I spent 2 weeks out west this summer!
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Watering plants during summer is hard work. If setting up the irrigation system is not feasible by then for any reasons, it may work if you can offer the pet sitters some extra monetary reward, to be given when you come back from the vacation and all plants are still alive. You can consider that as one of the expenses for the vacation.