Summer vacations when gardening

Summer is a great time for vacations! All that sun, warmth, beautiful scenery is everywhere. It is also a great time for gardening: we are either succession planting or harvesting, processing our goods or eating them fresh. We might be dealing with the awful pests that like us adore the heat of the sun. We might even be preparing for the fall plantings if it is late summer!

What to do if we need to take summer vacations? It never really dawned on me until I decided to become a suburban homesteader. I had not realized, before booking my first summer vacation, that I would have to do something to guarantee I would come back to a garden that resisted my absence. After three successful trips of different durations, here are some of my strategies to deal with the stress of leaving my green babies unattended.

Mulch

Raised bed, in-ground rows or pots, all benefit from mulching in the summer. The soil will be hot enough and placing mulch on top will:

• Prevent water evaporation in hot sunny days;
• Help with temperature regulations, preventing rapid soil temperature change;
• Avoid erosion from strong winds and summer rains and add protection from the holes squirrels like to make. They will scatter mulch, instead of dirt;
• Prevent water-logging when we have non-stop rain, because cedar and other dry mulch will absorb much of that water.

All my raised beds have some sort of mulch, be in the form of companion planting or some cedar and wood chips. What is important is to not put mulch too early in the season because that actually retains too much moisture in the spring, slows down soil warm-up and give pests a lovely hideaway when most predators are not yet around.

Water reservoir

Being able to leave water dripping very slowly for the duration of my absence was key. I have mostly raised beds but also pots and containers exactly to be able to speed up my gardening with warm weather crops such as peppers and tomatoes. Forme they really produce the best in big containers instead of raised beds alone. The disadvantage is how much exposed to wind and heat they are! So, in comparison, the pots require way more attention than the raised beds themselves.

holes allow for constant moisture

You could invest in a dripping system, but I do not have one. What I did was to keep big and medium bottles of water and of wine or vinegar, as long as their cap can be perforated. Most of the time the remain in the shed, but when it is time to be absent they come in handy. What I did:

1. Using the small drill bit I have, I created 3 or 4 tiny holes in the cap.
2. I watered the plant containers to a state of saturation. They do have bottom holes and I left hem in very hot times anyway.
3. I filled the bottles with water to the top and secured the caps on.
4. Then I made a hole with a finger in the soil that was be able to accommodate the bottle neck, keeping it in a vertical position. You do not want to disrupt the roots, so one or 2 inches on the side of the pot will suffice.
5. When I placed the bottles in upside down, the slow dripping process started following the needs of the soil according to temperature, evaporation, etc.

What I like about this is that is very cost-effective and it really worked for me when leaving for up to 2 weeks. here is an example of my Hungarian Cheese pepper in a 5 gallon pot. I left green babies and came back to orange (ripe) peppers. They liked some neglect!

Shade

If you can move your pots to shadier spots, why not do so? In the heat of the summer, like the weeks of canicule in Quebec, I do bring the plants closer to trees and shrubs or place them in spots where they will get only the morning sun. For the raised beds a good option is to use the same hoops and structures that we would for creating mini-hoop greenhouses and just throw a shade cloth on it. Less light does equal to less heat and less water loss both from the soil and from the plants via transpiration.

If you are in the early stages of preparation of the garden, I would recommend to really understand how the sun revolves around your designated spots. Planting sun-loving heat-resistant plants in front of those more delicate ones will also be a good help

Pest protection

Summer is time when tons of garden pests are active and the best is to be vigilant all season long. That is why if your absence is a planned one, you should start taking all preventative measures you have weeks in advance. In my case that involves:

• Hosing off aphids and picking all sorts of Japanese beetles, potato beetles, trapping slugs and earwigs.
• Placing cards of thricogramma around my brassicas and alliums every week, including the day I leave. The moths are around all the time!
• Placing new earwig traps.
• Spraying plants with neem oil and mild soap everyday for the whole week before I leave, including the day I leave. 
• Placing a protection fleece or pest mesh on the hoops to prevent butterflies and moths to go on my carrots, kohlrabi and other tender plants.

Ask a friend

The old adage of a neighbour or a friend that can come to my place and check in on the plants never fails and it is my personal favorite. Especially if the friend is garden savvy or if you leave very clear instructions. Friends can move things away, water plants, harvest ripe fruits (always important for the plants to keep producing) and help relive my anxiety by sending pictures!

Because I have cats, a friend always come a few times in my house when I travel for more than a week. I get to combine mulch, water dripping, shade and an occasional visit of a human to keep my garden alive when I am away. But all the strategies work well on their own, even if the combined power is what yields the best results. But even in those weeks that I have to leave my garden fending for itself, I honestly have found that I come home to very healthy plants that were almost glad to get away from my excessive caring!

Plan or replan the trip

It might sound a bit silly, but thinking when you can or should leave is an important aspect for simplifying how much care you need to add to the garden in your absence. If you are leaving in July which is usually when you need to be on top of harvesting, and leave for more than 2 weeks, do you really have to? If so, maybe harvest and process most fruits you have, even green ones. Just freezing or dehydrating might suffice.

Try and consider what your garden has to offer at different points in time. Can you leave your harvest waiting for how long before the plants will stop producing? Can you leave when the heat is not so intense? Will there be periods of rain and can you use that to your advantage, including when your friend comes take care of the garden? Answering those important questions can simplify a lot the process and care of your bountiful homestead.

I am planning for next year to not leave at all in summer except for very late August and September. I am not sure I can keep the promise, but here in the Laurentians this is really when all pest pressure subdues, my summer crops are slow and stopping already and the beautiful fall crops are getting strong and do not need so much help. We should always strive to partner up with nature instead of fighting it.

Happy end of summer!