How do I keep a garden watered while I am away?

Established plants in the ground survive a fortnight almost anywhere in Britain. It is pots, containers, hanging baskets and a greenhouse that die, because they hold very little water and dry from every side.

Safety

Step by step

1. Work out what genuinely needs water.Established borders and lawns will be fine — a brown lawn recovers. Containers, hanging baskets, new plantings and greenhouse crops are what actually die. Concentrate on those rather than the whole garden.
2. Move pots into shade and group them.Out of direct sun and clustered together on the north side or under a tree. Grouped pots shade each other and create a humid pocket, and they dry far more slowly. This is the single most effective free measure.
3. Move pots off hot surfaces.A pot on paving or decking in sun heats from below and dries several times faster. Onto grass or soil, or onto a shaded surface.
4. Mulch everything thickly.Compost, bark or even gravel over the surface of pots and borders. It dramatically reduces evaporation from the soil surface, which is where most water goes.
5. Water deeply the day before.A thorough soak until water runs from the base, not a light watering on the morning you leave. Deep watering encourages roots downward and leaves a genuine reservoir.
6. Stand pots in trays or a shallow reservoir.Saucers or a shallow tray of water under grouped pots buys several days. Do not leave them permanently standing in water outside a heatwave — roots rot.
7. Use a capillary or wick system for a few pots.A strip of capillary matting from a water reservoir into each pot, or a cotton wick from a bottle. Cheap, silent, needs no power, and works well for a handful of containers.
8. Fit a timer and a soaker hose for a larger garden.A battery timer on the outside tap feeding a soaker hose or drip line through the beds and pots. Set it to run early morning for a longer, less frequent soak rather than a daily sprinkle.
9. Test the system days before you go.Run it for a full cycle and check every outlet actually delivers water and nothing leaks. A system that fails on day two is worse than none, because you stopped doing anything else.
10. Give the greenhouse most of the attention.A greenhouse in summer is the fastest killer. Open all vents and the door, apply shading, damp the floor, and move anything precious outside into shade for the duration.
11. Cut back and remove flowers before you go.Deadhead, remove open blooms and trim back growth. A plant carrying fewer leaves and no flowers uses considerably less water, and it will regrow.
12. Ask a neighbour for the few things that matter.Rather than the whole garden. A short written list — these six pots, twice, on these days — is far more likely to be done properly than a general request to water everything.
13. Check the hosepipe position before relying on a system.Restrictions apply to sprinklers and unattended hoses first, and are announced at short notice in dry summers. Have a fallback.

Tips

• Grouping pots in shade with a good mulch is worth more than any gadget for a week away. Do that first and add technology only for what it does not cover.
• Plastic bottles with the base cut off, pushed neck-down into a pot, deliver water slowly and cost nothing. Fill them as you leave.
• Take photographs of what a neighbour is looking after, with the list. It removes all the ambiguity about which pots you meant.

Common mistakes

• Watering lightly on the morning you leave — It wets the surface and evaporates within hours. A deep soak the day before leaves water in the root zone where it lasts.
• Relying on an untested timer — A failed battery, a blocked emitter or a slipped connector means the garden gets nothing at all — and you did nothing else because it was covered. Run a full cycle days beforehand.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask